Best and Brightest
by sourcandydaddy
Summary: Jaune Arc, best and brightest of Aegis Academy, registers for the Mistral Regional tournament during a prep-school field trip and advances to the finals where he faces off against the Invincible Pyrrha Nikos. And thus begins his journey to greatness, friendship, 'love' and all that.
1. Battle of The Century

**RWBY Belongs to RoosterTeeth with credit to the late Monty Oum.**

 **English is admittedly not my first language but i like to think I'm decent enough at common-speak to be able to write a somewhat coherent narrative piece.**

 **This is my first time trying anything of the sort so constructive criticism is _very welcome_. I'm not confident with the pacing of the story so any feedback of any sort would be helpful if I want to continue with this. I emulated 'Hover Car Racer' writing style-wise and tried my hand at commentary side by side with a narrative so feedback on that too would be great.**

* * *

" _Welcome all. Ladies and Gentlemen of Mistral and beyond_ , "sports commentator Sugar Ray bellowed for the crowd to hear.

" _To the 74_ _th_ _Mistral Regional Tourney Finals, sponsored by the Schnee-Dust company and Pumpkin Pete_ ," his partner Esther Evermillion added with equal flourish.

 **Sugar Ray** : " _This past fortnight has been one helluva ride hasn't it Miss Million._ "

 **Esther** : " _Indeed Sugar. Hundreds of Challengers from Mistral and beyond signed up for a shot at glory but alas…Only two made it out._ "

" _And only one will stand_ ," the ever boisterous Sugar riled up the crowd which replied in kind with a deafening roaring cheer.

 **Esther** : " _We have for the fourth time competing, Mistral's own Goddess of Victory and three-time Champion going for a record breaking fourth. She needs no further introduction …_ "

* * *

From the West Entrance of the Colosseum, the championess cat walked her way to the center of the arena with tortuously slow gait. With each step she took her blood-red hair bobbed and weaved left and right in rhythm. She found comfort in the clinking noise her spear made when it hit her shield with each step, more as a distraction from the cheering crowd than anything. With practiced grace she would send a wave in every direction with a plastic smile once in a while. The first time it had been exhilarating but the feeling of elation that followed every victory was numbed out with each win under her belt.

" _PYRRHA_ _ **'INVINCIBLE GIRL'**_ _NIKOS_."

If she'd thought the crowd was loud before then she was wrong, at the mere mention of her name the cheering got louder by several decibels to the threshold of pain. She'd done this before of course so she had gotten used to the tinnitus that followed every time. The walkway to the center of the arena was an intentionally long walk but she endured the muting static in her ears as she made her way, only stopping to smile and wave at her 'fans'. Reaching the arena, she fastened her thigh-high greaves and arm braces, checked the latch on her gorget to make sure it was secured properly before finally moving on to her breastplate, fastening the leather strap to its side.

With a whirl of her spear it shifted form into a Xiphos, in the other free hand she held a Dipylon shield. She situated herself into a relaxed guard as she waited for the commentator to finish the rundown and introduce her opponent whom she hoped won't forfeit like everyone else had before.

* * *

Sugar and Esther, patiently, waited for the crowd to quell its cheering to a manageable level before resuming with the commentary, the noise was such that even with stadium wide speakers the cheering would have drowned out anything they said.

"20 fights this season alone. 3 early stoppages and 17 forfeits. Truly, she is invincible. Can the challenger even compete," Sugar recited Pyrrha's seasonal record and looked to his partner to introduce the challenger.

"He can more than compete alright," Esther announced with a hearty chuckle.

 **Sugar Ray** : "He dominated in the Group stage and much like our beloved Nikos, he too had 20 fights. With his thundering blows and blinding speed he racked up an All knockout record. "

 **Esther** : "Tough rep from both contenders. Too bad reputation won't win you a fight."

 **Sugar Ray** :"Without further ado Ladies and Gentlemen. From the East corner we have, and I quote, Aegis Academy's best and brightest, Ocean Eyes, Master of Storms, Icarus reborn…"

* * *

It was during a school field trip when he stumbled upon a poster advertising a local tourney. The prize was very tempting, a sponsorship with his favorite cereal brand Pumpkin Pete, which he hoped meant a lifetime supply of the sugary confec…'cereal'. He'd delegated the task of filling the registry form to his twin sister and now he was paying for his mistake.

" _JAUNE_ _ **'THE TEMPEST'**_ _ARC_."

Face flushed red from embarrassment, he jogged his way to the center of the stage towards his opponent. Some portion of the West-Wing audience had started chanting his various nicknames as they reveled in his embarrassment much to his dismay. He pulled his hood over his head to hide his reddened face as he picked up pace to the stage, luckily he'd worn his chest-plate over the garment to hide the Pumpkin Pete logo hidden beneath otherwise the humiliation would have worsened tenfold.

At the center of the arena ocean eyes met emerald eyes as the two warriors faced each other. Now face to face with quite possibly the toughest opponent he's faced in the tourney and probably ever, his demeanor changed from that of the cornered animal he was a second ago to that of a warrior with deadly intent in his eyes.

Both contender moved back to their starting positions, East and West respectively.

From his back strap Jaune pulled out a golden 'Jian' straight-sword with yellow tassels at the end, a weapon he'd picked up simply for its similarity to his name and to accommodate his light-footed style of combat. Stance wide, feet firmly planted aground and with his body lowered he held the sword proper with his dominant hand blade pointed frontwards and in the other hand he held the sheath in a reverse grip rested on his back. With the sword to attack from the front and the sheath to block any blind attacks, he was ready.

* * *

 **Sugar Ray** : "Ladies and Gentlemen brace yourselves for this perfect display of West-Mistralian Sword and shield against the East's Sword and Sheath."

 **Esther** : During my huntress days I've had the pleasure…rather displeasure of facing off against both styles. The West has absolute defense coupled with unrelenting offense, simple looking but very practical. The East capitalizes on the fluid agility of practitioners and lightning fast pin-point strikes, it's effective but in exchange for conventional techniques it looks impractical. They're t…

 **Sugar Ray** : They're the exact opposite of each other. Fire and Water. Tiger and Dragon. Sun and Moon.

 **Esther** : ...'sigh'...In a sense…yes. And like every style out there they aren't without their weaknesses…

 **Sugar Ray** : 'tut' 'tut' now. That would be telling.

 **Esther** : True. That's enough exposition…for now. Keep a sharp ear out during the fight for helpful commentary. I'll do my best to fill in the gaps and don't forget to look at the Aura meter for real time damage reports.

* * *

 **Jaune** : █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █

 **Pyrrha** : █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █

* * *

 **Sugar Ray** : And with that…Are both contestants ready.

 **Esther** : Arc was a little nervous at first but now he's in battle mode, the man looks like a starved Beowulf. Nikos, as always…cool as a cucumber and ready to kick ass. I think they're ready, but what does our audience think?

 **Sugar** **Ray** : I don't know Esther. How about we ask them.

"…"

 **Both** : MISTRAL. VALE. ATLAS. HOOLIGANS FROM VACUO.

 **Sugar** **Ray** : ARE!

 **Esther** : YOU!

 **Sugar** **Ray** : READY!

 **Both** : TOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

* * *

" **RUMBLE** ," a deafening roar filled the Colosseum signalling the bout to begin.

Both fighters in their respective stances circled the arena for a few seconds, never breaking eye contact as they scanned the other for any weakness to exploit. Pyrrha had rested her Xiphos in the right side lobe of her shield which was positioned firmly in front of her to protect her midsection as she rigidly shuffled around the arena. Jaune on the hand had his Jian pointed to Pyrrha and the sheath to his back tip pointed skyward as he gracefully flowed around the arena with feather-light footing. Neither fighter had any openings to exploit as of yet, one of them would have had to attack first and peel away the other's defenses.

Shifting her Xiphos to its Musket form, Pyrrha was the first to attack with two burst-fire shots aimed at Jaune's head and midsection respectively. With fluid grace and without changing position, Jaune ducked aside the first wave of bullets aimed at his head and deflected the second wave going to his chest with the back of his Jian in a swipe sending the projectiles flying off into the Colosseum barrier.

 **Jaune** : █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █

 **Pyrrha** : █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █

Still on his guard Jaune shifted his footing readying himself for a forward, right foot forward flat on the ground and his left by the ball of foot. He put his weight into his left foot and rocketed forth towards Pyrrha with such speed it left behind a violent gust of wind. Within barely the blink of an eye he was within Pyrrha's guard, his sword had slipped past her shield through one the lobes and was aimed at the least protected area of her body, the shoulders. Courtesy of Aura, the penetrating force behind the blow was absorbed but some excess still carried through to the soft trapezius muscles.

The crowd had gone silent at the spectacle of the two fighters going all out from the start, never before had they seen someone push back 'the Pyrrha Nikos' in all her three years of competing, yet here she was, wary of her opponents with burning interest in her gaze.

 **Jaune** : █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █

 **Pyrrha** : █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █

Had she not backpedaled in time, her sword-arm would have been paralyzed by the thrust and the drain on her aura much more significant. With Jaune still in close range, she took pot-shots aimed at his abdomen, five to be exact, before cartwheeling a good three meters away from him. Two of her initial shot had connected with his chest-plate so there was no real damage to his being except the push-back from being shot by a rifle point-blank. The other three had connected somewhat successfully, two had grazed his side as they careened and the last one hit him squarely just below the solar plexus. Collectively taking away a chunky 9% of his aura, rounded off to 10%.

 **Jaune** : █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ 91

 **Pyrrha** : █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ 95

* * *

 **Sugar** **Ray** : Barely a minute in and Nikos has already drawn first blood. Arc was doing well for himself at the start by pushing her back, even got a good light tap on her shoulder but looks like this match is in the Goddess' favor.

 **Esther** : I'd like to agree with you there but not quite. Nikos is down by about 5% of her aura from just that 'light tap' on her shoulder. If she hadn't moved back, then the match would have ended right before it started.

 **Sugar** **Ray** : The Aura meter didn't show anything any damage to Nikos though?

 **Esther** : To make this finale more interesting, we're using the Atlas Standard Ten-Point deduction system. A point is deducted for every significant number-percentage close to 10% or for every critical hit delivered.

 **Sugar** **Ray** : Basically don't get hit really hard ten times. Wouldn't that end the match too quickly?

 **Esther** : Arc is a cautious and agile fighter; he'll be at an advantage if he can prolong the fight and tire Nikos out with his agility. And Nikos has the option of long range so if the going gets tough she can chip away his aura bit by bit from safety. It all works out in the end.

 **Sugar** **Ray** : Fair Enough, though that was a bit too telling.

 **Esther** : I doubt that. After that display, nothing else matters to them except for the opponent in-front of them. I don't even think they heard me…

* * *

Jaune had proven himself a lot more skilled than her previous opponents, going so far as to push her to fighting all out from the start. His fighting style was fluid yet erratic enough to bypass her guard without her notice, something which almost costed her the match earlier on. The two fighters now kept their distance from each other, a deadly silence passed between the two as they were now wary of the other. Shifting from its Musket form to its spear form, she rested the pole in the lobes and pushed towards her opponent with her shield now raised to just below eye-level.

Jaune who had but a moment to snap out of his observational trance moved in to meet Pyrrha in the middle. Pyrrha thrust her spear towards Jaune who spun out of its path and retaliated with a swing of the sword sheath aimed to her head only to be met by her shield. With her shield occupying his left hand, she aimed to thrust at his midsection with her spear only for him to sidestep the initial attack and evade the following flurry of leg sweeps, stabs and kicks. For every attack Pyrrha threw his way, he replied in kind by parrying her spear, the occasional kick which was met with her shield and at every opening with his straight sword which she would contort herself out of its path.

From the stands, the audience had taken to rhythmic banging of the chairs and whatever they had on hand in tune to every attack, parry and evasion.

* * *

 **Sugar** **Ray** : Nikos is attacking like a madwoman. **Stab**. **Stab**. **Shoot**. **Shoot**. **Kick**. **Stab**. **Sideswipe**.

 **Esther** : Arc is dodging every attack like a man possessed, rolling and spinning like a man on fire, retaliating like a wraith on drugs.

 **Sugar** **Ray** : They've been at each other's throats for the past ten minutes and there's been more than a few solid hits on either side.

 **Esther** : Arc's in the lead surprisingly making Nikos' to take a more aggressive stance than usual

 **Sugar** **Ray** : Hold nothing back huh...I can live by that.

* * *

With winded breath and pained movement they both rushed in to attack, only to meet the other in the middle, sword clashed with shield and sheath parried spear away. An overhead kick from Jaune left him open to a knee kick to the gut. A mistimed shield-bash from Pyrrha left her open to a swipe at her neck from Jaune's straight-sword which was originally aimed at her exposed temple but thanks to a black miasma surrounding the blade, caused it to violently clash with her gorget instead with enough force to shatter the clutch side exposing her neck. Pyrrha backpedaled away from Jaune, far enough to throw her shield at him like a discus.

The shield flew straight at Jaune; he would have parried it away but it had too much spin/momentum that even a decent parry could only barely deflect it away from him or deflect it completely only at the cost of possibly disarming himself. With close to forty percent of his aura remaining, twelve percent more than Pyrrha, he still had a chance of winning so he gambled on his sword.

 **Jaune** : █ █ █ █ 37

 **Pyrrha** : █ █ █ 25

With the shield seconds away from his range he positioned his blade in a tilt that would have lead the shield into the concrete embedding it rending the Championess defenseless. Feet firmly planted aground in a horse stance for better poise he readied himself to receive. Inches away from his blade, the shield was coated in a familiar shroud of black aura, he'd noticed the phenomena earlier in the fight affecting his weapons but the effect was too subtle to pin-point. Up-close however, he saw the shield stall mid-spin causing it to veer slightly to the left connecting with his blade at an odd angle that sent it flying into left shoulder and would have been fatal had he not accounted for it's sudden directional change. Instead of digging into his shoulder, the spinning shield cut through his chest-plate's leather strap undoing the whole set as well as cutting through fabric, flesh and shoulder muscle drawing some blood. The chest-plate fell undone revealing the Pumpkin Pete logo for the world to see but at the moment he had an advantage to capitalize on so his wounded pride could wait till later. He had successfully parried the shield a foot into the concrete meaning at the moment Pyrrha could only attack.

 **Jaune** : █ █ 21

 **Pyrrha** : █ █ █ 25

What followed was a series of blunders that could only be attributed to a lapse in Judgement for the Championess. She'd thrown her shield at her opponent in order to blindside him with her semblance and cut down as much aura as she could, she'd accomplished that at least but the follow up was not what she had intended. The shield throw should have turned just enough to hit him in the face and knock him out, with the amount of aura he had the hit wouldn't have been fatal but it would have ended the fight then and there. Instead he'd parried the shield embedding it too deep into the concrete for her to retrieve in time to defend against his return fire and now he was charging at her with intent to finish the fight as well. She shifted her weapon from its Xiphos form she'd settled on for the past ten minutes of the bout into its rifle counterpart. She took aim at Jaune whom she'd expected to roll out of the way like he'd been doing the whole time but this time he was charging at her with a confident smirk, she reasoned to herself that Jaune thought he had enough aura left to tank the shots long enough to drain hers away. Her opponent apparently suicidal, she was assured of her victory so she fired thrice.

'Click' 'Click' 'Click'

Nothing. She was out of ammo and Jaune had known the whole time, too caught up in enjoying the challenge she'd forgotten to keep count of her ammo.

He was too close for her to shift her rifle back into its bladed counterparts so she resorted to using the musket as a blunt weapon instead. With a roar Jaune brought down his straight sword in an arcing sweep towards Pyrrha who took a kneel and met the sword overhead with the musket's barrel. The barrel having been made from a softer metal to accommodate its mechashift forms bent unto itself upon contact with the sword rending it useless thus leaving Pyrrha unarmed. Jaune's sword, an eastern make weapon built for flexibility over durability had taken a beating over the past two weeks and with the added strain of Pyrrha currently pushing it away with her Polarity, shattered. Unlike Pyrrha though, he still had another weapon he could use and a Semblance he'd yet to fully utilize. He turned to his sheath which he had secured onto the back-strap for quick draw techniques and blunt strikes only to find it levitating away from him rending him weaponless too.

* * *

 **Sugar Ray** : Oooph, rookie mistake from the Champ there. She forgot to count her ammo.

 **Esther** : Just goes to show that even the best of us make mistakes.

 **Sugar Ray** : Can't blame her though, looks to me like this was her first real challenge in all her three years competing. She was enjoying herself too much she simply forgot.

 **Esther** : This is by far the longest fight in her career, 17 minutes and still going strong.

 **Sugar Ray** : Is it just me or is the wind picking up a little ...

 **Esther** : ' _smirk'_

* * *

"You want to give up," for the first time during their fight Jaune broke the silence with a taunt.

"Not on your life. This is the most fun I've had. Ever," Pyrrha replied with smile equal parts sickeningly sweet and smug.

"Heh... Jaune Arc," he introduced himself to her, moving towards her with both fist held together in greeting. He had meant it as a simple introduction to a worthy opponent.

"Pyrrha Nikos," she interpreted the gesture as a sign of respect between equals so she reciprocated in kind by returning it.

What was to the two, a small gesture of respect meant much more to the present audience and absent observers in Mistral. To them it was a handshake between titans. A civilian gesture elevated to godhood. With bated breath they watched as the two met in the middle as their fists clashed in greeting.

The two parted from their greeting as they positioned themselves in front of the other, instead of going for their weapons they held their fists up. Jaune proceeded to remove his Armor, arm bracers, greaves and even his belt and hood much to the audience's surprise as he threw them outside the ring.

"I think I know your gimmick now, metal right," Jaune said to Pyrrha who didn't grace his question with a worded answer but with a smirk and a scoff as she levitated both their weapon remains out the arena placing them alongside his armor and hood.

"And I 'know' the secret to your 'thundering blows' and 'Speed'. **Tempest** , That's your Semblance isn't it, something to do with the wind," in turn he didn't answer with a worded reply but action.

A violent whirlpool of rotating air formed in his right as he threw a straight punch at her, a maelstrom of air rocketed towards her with a thundering boom caused by air displacement. Despite its speed the gust wasn't capable enough to harm Pyrrha's aura barrier, Jaune had meant it more as a confirmation to her question instead of an attack.

"You're about right," he replied as he readied himself into a boxing stance, fist held close together up to the chin with extra protection from his shoulder.

"Enough talk," Pyrrha said with a smirk as she too took up a boxing stance mirroring Jaune's own.

Jaune sidestepped left and right with blinding speed with air boosted footwork, courtesy of his semblance as he moved in closer to Pyrrha.

Mirroring his every movement with equal speed, a feat she achieved by using polarity on her greaves to pull herself forwards faster than she can normally. Whence Jaune had a passive increase in speed courtesy to his semblance, Pyrrha mimicked Jaune's application of his semblance and improvised on the spot to accommodate her lack of it.

Jaune was the first to attack with an air boosted drop kick which Pyrrha slipped under by sidestepping to his rear. With his back exposed, she threw a straight jab aimed at the back of his head only to be donkey-kicked away and pushed further back by a wall of air. With his balance regained, he took a hop step and jumped a good seven feet into the air before spinning mid-air and lashing out with his right leg in an axe-kick motion sending a whip of air towards Pyrrha who was dazed by the wall of air. With godly reflex, she sidestepped the blade of air barely evading it as it took out a handful of her red hair.

Despite not being in direct confrontation and a good few meters away from Pyrrha, Jaune bobbed and weaved to and fro building up momentum before lashing out with a flurry of jabs in the air sending gust after gust of concussive air-bullets towards Pyrrha. She weaved and slipped under every single one as she made for a beeline towards him.

With every desperate passing second she felt herself changing, getting stronger and in turn her Polarity evolved to match. With every gust of air Jaune shot out at her, dust and sand would accompany it making it to her face and clothing, now with greater control of her semblance than ever before she spread out her aura finely into the sand Jaune's 'Air Bullets' picked up. At first there was no reaction but soon after there was a pull, it was small but enough. Within the sand were traces of iron, microscopic traces but the sand was in large enough quantities to allow her to exert control of it in the form of Iron-Sand.

With a hop-step, she copied Jaune's earlier 'air whip' but instead attempted it with sand. As she reached the peak of her spin she lashed out a kick directing a whip of blackened sand towards him.

Faster than he could comprehend, a tendril of black sand smacked into his face with enough force to lightly daze him. Pyrrha hadn't expected it to be of any effect on the first try, rather she had intended it to blind him long enough for her to get a decent one-two combo on him.

 **Jaune** : █ █ 15

 **Pyrrha** : █ █ 19

With his eyes still flushing out the sand he was left vulnerable to an attack that could come from anywhere, this left him with two options; **one** : trust his poor instincts **two** : attack in every direction.

He took the only logical option. He fell on all fours as he balanced his body on his hands and started to spin his legs in a hand-glide. Thanks to his sisters' insistence on him attending their every dance lessons he had in his repertoire a plethora of useless skills that he could use, It was after all just break-dancing applied to a fight. Focusing the wind into his legs he spun around faster and faster as he picked up more and more wind directed in a circular formation, the result was an arena-localized mini tornado that lasted for only all of five seconds but it was enough time for his eyes to flush out the sand and the wall of air generated by the tornado kept Pyrrha at bay as well as drain her aura by a decent chunk leaving her with one bar.

 **Jaune** : █ █ 16

 **Pyrrha** : █ 11

* * *

 **Sugar** **Ray** : Ladies and Gentlemen. "The Tempest"

* * *

With the match nearing its climax the audience now stood on the edge of their seats with cheers going either way, with supporters now perfectly divided between the Champion and Knight. Bookmakers frantically placing last minute bets, with odds changing for every attack and counter. Worldwide, absent observers now had their eyes and ears glued onto their scrolls and radios respectively.

* * *

 **Pyrrha's POV**

I don't know when I actually started but in that moment when I found myself being rag-dolled by a tornado I was laughing my ass off, common sense was screaming at me to panic and do something, anything, but something inside just switched and I found myself lost in the moment. Going against everything my trainers and father drilled into me, I started improvising, mimicking my opponent…I didn't even think I had it in me…the arrogance…but I even started taunting my opponent.

I can feel a couple of my ribs out of place, torn ligaments, a splitting headache and my muscles feel like they're on fire but right now, none of that matters. I just want this fight to last forever.

I know I'm losing, just one more good hit and I'm going down.

That should terrify me but by Oum …am I excited.

I'm not sure if the thought of 'losing' is what excites me or if it's the thought of winning despite my odds.

My eyes meet his for a moment, and he hurls a straight jab at me. I could have dodged it but instead I brave it. Behind the stinging pain I feel intent behind his every punch. Heart, Body and Soul, like a master craftsman with his masterpiece he poured his all into it.

So…I return his kindness…tenfold.

* * *

"Hahahahahahaha," Pyrrha cackles like a madwoman as she dives straight into Jaune's guard and the two immediately start trading punches in close quarters. Like a common-cold, her maniacal cackling glee spreads to Jaune who starts grinning like a man possessed as he follows suit engaging the Champion in a slug-fest.

The arena goes silent for the third time, or was it the fourth, in the last half-hour as the crowd witnesses a trade-off between the Knight and Champion. Only the sound of punching and groaning can be heard in all corners of the arena. Despite the coliseum's size their exchange carries through and echoes throughout the structure, almost as if they were the only ones present.

For every punch the other receives they retaliate with their own, slowly making their aura meters trickle down until their respective levels are evenly matched.

 **Jaune** : █ 3

 **Pyrrha** : █ 3

* * *

 **Sugar** **Ray** : "… _wow_."

 **Esther** : "…Arc has superior speed but lacking in power whereas Nikos is the exact opposite. They're so evenly matched it's not even funny. This last attack will decide the winner…so…"

* * *

 **Jaune's POV**

This girl is a monster. Ha-ha-ha, I just clocked her square in the temple and she just laughed it off like a maniac then hit me back twice as hard in the gut. A weaker man would have doubled over and whined about the pain but that's not me anymore, that boy grew up when he went to Aegis.

My right eye's swollen shut, I can't feel my legs 'at all' and to make matters worse I'm fairly sure I shouldn't be able to taste purple, despite all the pain I'm feeling right now I'm ready and itching for more.

I am Aegis Academy's Best and Brightest, and I'm going to show that to the world with this last attack.

* * *

Both fighters stood a meter apart from the other, black and blue with bruises all over and knuckles bleeding from repetitive clashing with aura. They each took a whizzing breath and with a roar they charged at each other.

" _ **ARRRRRGH**_."

Jaune struck at the exact moment Pyrrha did, both fists connecting with their respective targets as the fighters moved past each other to stand back-to-back like Samurai of old after a duel.

The sound of an aura barrier shattering echoed throughout the Colosseum followed by a buzzer ringing out stadium-wide, signalling the end of the bout. The ever boisterous and lovably loud commentator Sugar Ray announced the winner over the speakers with exuberant flair ...

"… _The Winner …and now **F** our **Ti** me **C** hampion: __**PYRRHA**_ _ **NIKOS**_ _."_

 **Jaune** : X 0

 **Pyrrha** : █ 1

Behind the Championess, the Knight fell on his knees with a thud and before the rest of his body could join he was caught by two shivering arms hugging around his chest and found his body being lifted off the ground. Looking to his side to meet his helper, ocean eyes met emerald eyes once again as Pyrrha slung her arm around his neck to keep him upright as she took his hand in hers and lifted it up in celebration.

The crowd stood on the edge of their seats as they shouted cheers for the Invincible Victor and Honorable Loser,as she weakly lifted hers and Jaune's hands up in cheer they both lost consciousness arm in arm.

* * *

 **Sugar Ray** : True to her namesake 'The Goddess of Victory' prevailed once more and like **Icarus** of myth, Arc flew too close to the sun and he fell.

 **Esther** : It was poetry in Motion.

 **Sugar Ray** : PYRRHA NIKOS has just made history. She has won the Regional not just once...

 **Esther** : ~ _Not twice_ ~

 **Sugar Ray** : ~ _Not thrice_ ~

 **Esther** : But a record breaking ~ _Four times_ ~.

 **Sugar Ray** : She may have won the trophy and the sponsorship but Arc deserves some credit. The man fought like a demon revived, with the grace of a falling leaf and the ferocity of a raging typhoon...

 **Esther** : Master of Storms indeed... we just received word from the judges and they've just now decided on the recipient of the esteemed M.V.P title. Sugar if you would please…

 **Sugar Ray** : * _clears throat*_ …The **M** ost **V** alued **P** articipant for the 74th Mistral Regional Tournament ~iiisss~… _'drum-roll please'_

 **Esther** : '* * _drum-roll_ * * '

 **Sugar Ray** : …Jaune Arc.

 **Esther** : After that show there ain't nobody to say otherwise. He earned it fair and square.

 **Sugar** **Ray** : It has been a pleasure Ladies and Gentlemen, but that's all from us. Enjoy the festivities and make sure to greet the various dignitaries who have graced us with their presence today.

 **Esther** : If you want your mind blown a second time don't forget to check the replays on loop on very screen in the Coliseum.

 **Both** : Thank you and hope to see you in Vale for the ~Vytal Festival~.

 **Esther** : ~ Toddles ~

* * *

 **A/N : I couldn't figure out good names for sports commentators that would fit the color theme of RWBY so i just used my fav Boxer of all time Sugar Ray Robinson and a random name i got from a random name generator.**

 **I might continue with this in my free time, this one took me a single sitting so it shouldn't be too hard.**

 **Edit: I didn't actually spellcheck most of this so some glaring grammar and spelling issues have been fixed. The ones i could find that is**


	2. Ambrosia of the Gods

**Ambrosia of the Gods**

Hours after the fight, four to be exact, when Jaune was just slipping out of his post-fight daze, he looked up from the infirmary bed to be met with a blinding white ceiling in warm silence. He stared at it intently in wonder. His thoughts brought him back to his fight with Pyrrha.

He'd lost.

Granted, his opponent was insanely powerful and so damn well near perfect his chances of pulling a win were almost non-existent the moment he stepped foot in the arena. Under different circumstances he might have been content knowing that he fought someone of her caliber to a standstill but not this time. He'd resolved himself to win and he'd put his all into the fight, boasted even, yet he still lost.

Defeat was meant to be bitter, scathing like a particularly nasty scab on skin but despite all that he found himself smiling contently when he came to.

The smell of alcohol wound-dressing was the first of many hospital-esque odors to assault his sense of smell followed by traces of an ungodly strong dark-roast coffee smell and a hint of orange scented perfume, the perfume he'd identified as a particularly expensive make his twin-sister loved wearing so much. He sat himself upright and found his being covered in light-bandaging with a shoulder-sling he could tell he no longer needed, courtesy of aura and an above-average healing factor working overtime to mend broken bones and wounds.

From the far side of the infirmary came a shuffling noise, the kind made from hard fabric rubbing on soft fabric. The source…a girl, his age, same shade of blonde hair but waist length, same height and same ocean eyes; if not for her noticeable bust one would've thought they were one and the same person, they were after all twins. Occupying her hands was an immaculate, crisply ironed, school blazer she was neatly folding and placing alongside other items of gold themed clothing he recognized as the Aegis Academy uniform.

"You're awake. Took you long enough, here," she said as she handed the stack of clothing to him while pushing him into a closeted section of the room which looked like a nurse's station, "change into this and then we'll talk."

Living with seven sisters had made him very tolerant and generally accepting of his siblings' antics, even when they pushed him around…especially when they pushed him around. Like instinct, borne of experience, he took it in stride as he walked into the sectioned area to change; he had many questions but he put them aside for now. The first to come off was the shoulder-sling followed by the bandages, with four hours' rest aura had healed all external injuries so not a scar remained as far as he knew.

He slipped into a pair of jet-black pants with gold thread lining the seams, a white dress-shirt with a black and gold stripped tie and to complete the set, a jet black blazer with gold-trim lining the lapel. Emblazoned on the right chest pocket was the school insignia, the Aegis, an impenetrable shield wreathed in flames.

Why he needed to change into his uniform when he was sure he was still in Mistral, he didn't know, but he made sure that was to be his first question.

"Why am I…," as soon as he walked out of the nurse's station he'd been about to ask but…

"How're you feeling Jaune," she interrupted him as she moved in closer to adjust his lapel and fasten his tie almost to a strangle.

"No scarring as far as I know…Muscles still hurt a little but otherwise I'll be fine in a couple days. You know how much aura I have Jo," he said as he motioned to his shoulder, winding his arm around to prove his well-being.

"…I wasn't talking about your wounds; I know you're already healed. 'damn monster'. I was talking about how well…you uh…took the loss," Joan averted her gaze in worry as she all but whispered the last part.

"…hmm…," Jaune hummed to himself in thought as he rubbed his chin," did you think I would mope about and whine after losing," he said with a brow raised and a mischievous smirk.

"You're not broke up about it."

"Losing that match…hurt, but not bad enough to mope around about it. If anything, it made me …crave…the challenge even more. If that makes sense to you," he reasoned to her, to which her expression lightened in response.

"…'sigh'…Enjoying a fight is one thing just don't become like dad," Joan said as she led him the infirmary exit.

"I gotta ask Jo…why am I wearing my uniform and why do I smell coffee," he said to her just as they exited through the sliding doors.

"To answer your first question, the M.V.P, i.e. you, and the champion are required to attend the after-party. It's a formal event and the school uniform was made for such events, "she answered," two stones one bird."

"So, that's where we're headed then…right that answers that. Also…I thought you hated coffee."

"Some old guy with a cane dropped by while you were sleeping and left you a letter, the nurses let him in so I figured he was important. He brought his own flask of the stuff which he spilled on the sheets, I was hiding them from the nurses when you woke up." He reasoned that the shuffling noise from earlier might've been her hiding the sheets if the sound was anything to go by.

"Here," she said as she stuffed a green envelope into the blazer's inner pocket, "You'll have time to read it after the party. We're almost there."

…

…

…

* * *

 **Word Count: 1,002**

Coffee, Wine of Arabia, Ambrosia of the Gods


	3. Trophaeum

**Trophaeum**

' _In preparation of the Regional Finals, a full month was dedicated by Mistralian dignitaries to display the vast wealth and beautiful culture of their glorious Kingdom. Invitations were sent out to various select important figures from all four corners of Remnant to come enjoy the gladiatorial-fights while enjoying some fine local wines and olives in the enclosed Gardens of the Trophaeum Coliseum. In honor of the youths who sacrificed sword and bone to compete, a banquet was held for all people from the least to greatest walks of life in the city._ '

' _As per tradition, a ball is held at day's end in honor of the champion and runner up within the Gardens. With guests ranging from Jacques Schnee the Dust tycoon, General James Ironwood of Atlas, OZPIN of Beacon, Lady Tremaine the Grand Couturier and at the very least Henry Beaufort of the Winchester Conglomerate it goes without saying that the after-party is open only to the world's most powerful._ '

"Good Evening people of Vale, this is Lisa Lavender of Vale News Network covering the Trophaeum Ball, Live from the reception," with the camera rolling and broadcast signal-light blinking Lisa Lavender introduced herself to the people of Vale to report some quality entertainment 'news'.

"We've already talked to some of the combatants and the dignitaries but one guest of honor has yet to grace the red carpets, that is the Vale-born Jaune Arc. Is this a dramatic late-arrival or is he simply not going to show up…?"

A cacophony of camera shutters clicking filled the reception area as blinding of flashes of light signaled the arrival of the guest of honor. From the hallway, walked two blondes both wearing identically immaculate school uniforms save for the female who wore a black dress of modest length and knee-high stockings in place of black dress pants. Arm in arm they walked down the red carpet leading to the ballroom entrance.

"Mr Arc…care to spare a moment of your time for…."

"Will you be trying your luck next year at the Vyt-…"

"What qualities do you look for in a woman…"

"What games are you looking forward to this season…"

Jaune had yet to make it past ten meters before he was swarmed with reporters, asking reasonable questions which soon devolved into downright bizarre questions with their mics practically glued to his face in a somewhat inappropriate manner and pulsating flashes of light surrounding him which caused him to wince and close his eyes least he goes blind.

"Clear away please, you'll have time for questions after the ball." Two mountains of muscle clad in black, presumably guards, cleared away the crowding reporters to make way for the twins. Some of the braver reporters attempted to jump the red-velvet barricade in chase of a story but were quickly intercepted by a marginally more effective barrier of pure muscle wearing shades and a deathly glare while the others shied away at the sight and simply contented to taking pictures from behind the barricade.

Jaune nervously smiled as he waved left and right, white spots filling his vision each time a camera would capture his nervous visage. Joan on the hand, who had tagged along simply because she can, reveled in the attention unlike her other half as she enthusiastically waved everywhere and there sending the occasional kiss and a racy pose every now and then, however much she could in the twenty seconds it took to reach the entrance.

...

...

...

* * *

 **Word Count: 577**

A Couturier is a fashion premier who designs clothing as per a client's specification. A Grand Couturier is a fancy title given to members of some fashion organization with a really long name that im not going to copy-paste from Wikipedia.

In Remnant I imagine they're the ones who design Hunter wear and sew using dust like Cinder （゜‿＾）.


	4. Prince Charming

**Starting Uni in 3 days so updates will be a bit irregular at best. As soon as i adjust to the timetable I'll dedicate some of my time to this. I already have a booklet filled with notes for the story up till the start of the festival.**

* * *

 **Prince Charming**

The inside was everything Jaune had expected from such a posh event. Important people as far as the eye could see mixed in with the participants and their respective trainers, or battle-masters as they were called in Mistral, chatting and mingling with each. Most if not all Mistralian dignitaries were dressed in puffy dresses for the women and ridiculously expensive suits for the men, all in an effort to oust one another. An endeavor which some would admit they've gone too far when two Chatelaines showed up wearing what one could only describe as a ticker-tape parade of color on fabric and duke it out for wearing the same item, only to be led off the premises promptly.

Joan, the more social of the twins had made to talk to some of the contenders immediately after walking into the ballroom leaving Jaune alone by the entrance-way, flabbergasted. All eyes were on him for but a moment, hushed whispers of his name and the occasional glance sent his way as he made his for the punch table where he hoped to hide from prying eyes. With a drink in hand, non-alcoholic of-course, he awkwardly rested by the wall as he watched the night unfold mostly in peace, only interrupted by the occasional Mistralian noble or business-men propositioning him sponsor-ships, apprenticeships, scholarships and to his surprise, an arranged marriage every now and then.

With the night nearing its end and the final dance imminent Jaune pondered to his lonesome by the balcony, away from the attention and political intrigue of Mistral. So lost in thought was that his battle hardened keen-hearing failed to register the glassy clinking noise of stilettos until…

" _~Hello~_." A feminine voice broke him from his thought.

The girl had almost paper white skin and looked to be about his age if not older, her very, very shapely hourglass figure made it difficult to pin-point her age but her mannerisms were indication enough of her youth. She wore a pitch-black backless mini-dress that matched her short hair that shimmered, as if reflecting off glass beads, in the light of the setting sun which too matched her fiery eyes. She walked up to him with a light sway in her hips, unintentional on her part but her figure made it impossible not to walk as such, and his eyes moved in tune to her hypnotic gait. With glass in hand she stood next to him, with some moderate amount of space between.

"Hi there," he replied nervously. Earlier he'd been approached by many girls his age, older women with questionable intent, some women old enough to have been his mother's mother and each one had been more beautiful than the last (aura worked miracles) but this girl stood out amongst the rest.

"The ball's coming to an end soon…be a shame if you leave without dancing at least once."

"It would be a shame…too bad I don't have a dance partner," he said as he took a sip of drink with confidence and an uncharacteristic tease.

The ravenette turned to face him with a furious blush embellishing her pale visage, tiny embers of light danced around the inside of her amber eyes as she furrowed her lips into a nervous smile.

"I-If you wouldn't mind, would you like to d-dance with…me." She asked him with a glance cast aside.

 _\- 'Kish' -_

Taken aback Jaune had loosened his grip on the sherry glass hence sending it crashing onto the balcony floor into a granular mess. The girl, who he still didn't know seemed to be ignoring his little accident as she looked him straight in the eyes innocently awaiting an answer.

"I'd be honored to accompany a beauty such as yourself." With exaggerated flourish he awkwardly took a bow.

"If you're here that means you know who I am but I'm sorry to say I don't know your name."

"Call me Ella. Ella Tremaine." No longer the stuttering nervous wreck she was before she returned his greeting, she pinched the hems of her dress but didn't pull them to the side least she bared herself to him and dipped herself to a courteous bow.

"Just need to clean this up before we leave," Jaune said as he pulled out a pocket tissue from his blazer as he dipped to the ground to scoop out however much of the glass shards he could and leave the rest to the cleaners.

"Here, let me," Ella said as she waved her hand coated in a shimmering glow of aura.

All shards scattered on the floor congregated within a space five feet above the ground as they broke apart into even finer pieces with any and all traces of the liquid dripping of. The resulting granules compacted into themselves as they shifted form into various simple shapes with gradually became more complicated as they settled onto Ella's desired form, a thumb sized translucent stiletto with intricate lines and carvings decorating it. A couple seconds passed and the construct blackened as it hardened leaving it a glassy black with specks of pure white within, reminiscent of the color of her starry aura.

"One glass won't be missed I'm sure," she said with feigned mischief and a saucy wink.

The tiny construct floated into her open hand as she pocketed it away god knows where. With her arm linked around his she led him to the ballroom where a slow steady song was playing its course, scattered around the floor were the contenders and their partners locked in a slow dance unprofessionally bumping into each other every now and again much to Jaune' disappointment.

Finding a spot dead-center of the ballroom floor, the two leaned in closer to a dance with arms modestly wrapped around her waist and hers just around his neck. She lay her head to rest upon the crook of his shoulder as he took her left hand in his right, up close he could've sworn she smelt of pumpkin spice with a subtle hint of birch oil. In absolute perfect tune to the elegant music they shuffled within a fixed space with professional expertise. He twirled her around, dipping her as he leaned closer to her in an almost lover's embrace whenever the song peaked and each time they would lock eyes both of them turned into lovely shades of pink but never let it disrupt the flow of their dance.

The remainder of the night was a blur to the both of them as they danced it away but alas, all good thing must come to an end.

Mid-dance, Ella looked out to the clock tower just facing the balcony and with a gasp she parted from Jaune. She gave him a look…a look of that told of reluctance, hesitance of not wanting to leave but forced to do so regardless by untold circumstances.

"It's almost midnight Jaune and I…have to leave. I wasn't supposed to be here." She said ashamedly, her eyes fixed to a point in the ground near his cap toed boots.

"I won't pry but…I had fun dancing with you and I hope it was worth the trouble coming here." In understanding, he said as he took her hand in his, holding it closer to himself for reasons he couldn't explain with non-other than 'it seemed right to do so at the moment.'

"I hope to be seeing you soon Jaune," she said as she made for the exit with a shuffle of her feet, courtesy of her formal wear restricting leg movement. With a bounce in her step and a deliberate sway in her gait she approached the exit guards who let her through without issue and left Jaune in the 'stupefied daze of infatuation' like the teenager hoped up on hormones that he was as he admired her backside and the beautiful ink she had of stilettos on her bared-back.

He casually put his hand in his blazer-pocket, more out of habit than anything and as a way to occupy his hands now that they weren't finger-locked with another set. From within, he felt something cold like glass and smooth to the touch as if it were polished; he pulled out the object which he fondly identified as the glass construct from earlier.

With the night truly coming to an end he took off elsewhere in search of the champion who had yet to show herself to the public, in hopes of getting a dance out of her at least and converse some, warrior to warrior, peer-to-peer.

He found her on the upper-most floor of the Trophaeum ball-room, isolated from her fellows as she was almost always surrounded by boisterous dignitaries and rich hicks whom she was unfortunately, courtesy of her Mistralian upbringing and family ties, obliged to tolerate unlike himself.

* * *

 **Word Count: 1,500**

Technically Ella isn't an OC -Cinder Ella Tremaine=Cinderella Tremaine . The name stayed true to her inspired fairy tale and color theme that is to say Cinderella's last name is Tremaine for those who don't know or keep up with Disney.

In my head-cannon, Cinder **(Cinderella)** turned out the way she did because she met Salem **(Fairy God-Mother)** ,she changed her last name to Fall as some dramatic ploy after she was promised the powers of Fall; that or it was for the irony.

In this fic she never met her **Fairy Grimm-mother** and stayed with her abusive stepmother. Since everyone deserves a happy ending,even Cinder, I made it so that she did meet her Prince Charming and left him something(a glass slipper). **  
**

Pyrrha's chapter(Plastic Faces,Plastic People) will be uploaded in a few days and then time skip to beacon.


	5. Plastic People and Plastic Promises

This will be the last chapter of this particular arc before moving onto beacon. I'm not too sure about the pacing of the story but i did my best to give it some semblance of a flow. There wont be action for a while but that's a story for ya, everything absolutely has to have a reason to happen and not just appear out of the blue.

If you feel there's any room for improvement with my writing feel free to leave a review. I won't cry(much),i can take the heat.

* * *

 **Plastic People and Plastic Promises**

Imprisoned within a sea of the entitled, the Champion in her blood-red cocktail dress with matching hair and lip-shine poised herself upright, half-listening to the ongoing conversation that she was apparently a part of, as some rich hick bumbled to himself. Escape was futile, each time she attempted to slink away she found a pair of grimy hands snaking around her waist pulling her back into the 'conversation' as it were. Out of fear and disgust of being jostled around constantly, she contended herself to standing in the same spot high atop her pedestal amongst the privileged as she overlooked the ball apparently held in her honor.

Sherry glass and half-drunk fizzing-liquid in hand she put on a ' _plastic smile_ ' to appease the congregating ' _plastic people_ ' who seemed to be drawn to her, robotically laughing whenever someone said something remotely funny or simply out of politeness with a matching ' _plastic face_ '.

Jaune walked up the winding stairs and made for a beeline towards the Champion who had a sickeningly sweet smile so fake it reminded him of a shopping mall mannequin. From the way she was standing and the occasional 'smile and laugh which would die out as soon as her attention was elsewhere' he figured she needed an escape from all the prim and pomp extravagance and just let loose.

Nothing a good dance couldn't fix.

All eyes on him now, he swam his way through, avoiding outreaching hands attempting to start conversation. Like a wall of arrows, he maneuvered his way around with grace, avoiding eye contact least he be trapped in endless chatter as he got closer to the Champion who was barricaded by a wall of black and grey suits boisterously laughing and stroking each other's ego with a pat to the back every now and then.

She noticed his approach and understood his intent and oh how thankful she was for the much needed rescue, leg-numbing hours had gone by and she hadn't once set foot elsewhere much less make conversation with someone her age like the other contenders who seemed to shy away from her beauty, fame and or was it her imposing height.

"Excuse me, "he said to the gentlemen surrounding the champion who were currently toasting to some great achievement unfathomable to those not of a business mind-set. They tensed up for but a second at the rude interruption but eased up just as quickly upon recognizing the MVP and bombarded him with handshakes from every which way.

"Hope you don't mind if I steal Pyrrha for a dance," with a fake high-culture Mistralian accent that he could only have copied from some soap opera, he motioned for Pyrrha's hand who replied in kind by placing hers on his forearm as she shuffled to position herself next to him.

With exasperated apologies they parted from the bourgeoisie and herded for the ballroom floor. With the night truly reaching its end the floor was cleared off all the riff-raff as they vacated the area for the night's last dance.

Lights dimmed, soft melody playing and a spotlight showering them. All eyes were fixed on them as the slowly made their descent via spiraling stairs with the lights homing on them marking their position for all to see. The red of Pyrrha's dress and lip-shine was illuminated by the spotlight washing over her and accentuated by the gold and black suited Jaune to her side. Silence filled the room below and from above you could make out the hushed whispers of the rumor-mill at work.

At first Jaune was nervous and was all but ready to turn the other way were it not for Pyrrha linking arms with him and dragging him along, not to say she wasn't nervous as well, she just had more experience dealing with suddenly being the center of attention. Agonizingly slowly they descended the staircase, platform by platform, camera shutters and broadcast lights blinking in the distance capturing the two as they made their way to the center.

An appropriately slow melody started to play as the floor was slowly filled by dancers, hand in hand as they swayed to and fro to soft drawn-out notes of the violas and shuffled to the sharp notes of the grand pianos.

The Champion and Knight stood in the epicenter of the floor, their arms around each other' waist and the other finger locked with the other. With mirrored footwork they fox-trotted within a square meter space gracefully and with moderate space in-between them to allow eye-contact and conversation.

"~Hello again," Pyrrha awkwardly said mid dance as she simultaneously kept up with Jaune's almost professional pace, albeit absentmindedly.

"You looked like you needed a save back there, hope I didn't interrupt some Ancient Mistralian tradition with that." He twirled in place as they parted momentarily and with a jerk pulled her back towards himself though now facing opposite directions, with Pyrrha gaze to the Bell-tower abreast of the balcony and Jaune's gaze to the Upper floor rails where the Bourgeois mass congregated overlooking the dances and whispering amongst themselves.

"It was getting a bit tiring just standing so for that I thank you and no…you didn't break any ancient traditions…as far as I know…," she teased getting a chuckle out of him. Their dance picked up pace as others cleared the way giving them more room to move about.

"How do you deal with it…all the attention," he said as they locked eyes, hers slowly losing color momentarily at the mention of fame. The downcast look she had told him all he needed to know, that one moment of lost focus was all it took for them to lose tempo and with that their dance slowed with Pyrrha awkwardly copying Jaune with him leading.

"I heard you won a bunch more times…If you don't like the attention then why do it." He didn't want to pry but the awkward silence that followed his previous question was too much to bear. There was a clear contrast between " _Pyrrha the champion_ " he fought earlier and " _Pyrrha the girl_ " awkwardly shuffling in front of him.

Often-wise his parents, sisters and just about anyone who knew him called him out for being oblivious to matters of the heart, whatever that meant, but this time it was glaringly obvious to him but apparently no one else. Inside the ring was the only time she ever felt truly alive, the way she was laughing during their bout was proof enough, but because of the fame accumulated she didn't quite have the opportunity to enjoy life outside the ring, if his short-lived fame was anything to go by.

"I do it for the challenge…to fight someone my equal and earn victory," she said, some color returning to her expression as a small smile graced her fair features.

"After my first two wins, every single fight I've had after that ended with either a forfeit or my opponent not even putting a fight. All because of reputation. "There was a hint of anger and frustration in her words but they didn't carry into her expression as she continued dancing with as much gusto as when they started.

"~whistle~ That's actually impressive and kinda tragic all at the same time," the knight replied.

"You probably didn't know me when you entered so for that I thank you. Because you weren't intimidated you put the best fight I've ever had in my four years competing," she said with a smile that put a blush on the knight's face.

"Look forward to a rematch next year." With her mood lightened up he reassured her the only way he knew for sure would work, with an open challenge.

She giggled to herself before coming to a realization," I won't be competing next year Jaune, I'll be of age to enroll to a huntsman academy therefore not eligible to participate."

"Oh~," he replied with both surprise and dejection. He hadn't actually read the fine print so the news came as a surprise to him and to his disappointment it also meant he couldn't have a rematch with her ever.

"How old are you Jaune," she said, curious as to his age if he had planned on competing the following year. Height,in her case, wasn't a good indicator of age if she was to use her own as a standard and seeing as how they were almost equal she figured he must have been close to her age if not a year older or younger.

"Turned sixteen two months ago," he said with pride and gusto, however much you could in hushed tone as they were still dancing while trying to avoid bringing any unwarranted attention to themselves.

"Unless you somehow get into a Huntsman academy via early-entry you're going to have to wait two years for that rematch in the Vytal Festival. I can be patient, I'll wait, "she teased.

"~hmm~…Vytal Festival…,"he mused to himself.

"Alright…I'll take you up on that. I was thinking of attending Beacon and I imagine Haven has a seat all warmed up for you so we'll be fighting for our respective homelands."

She had a look of unease to her when he mentioned Haven but it was quelled just as quickly as it appeared by an awkward smile. They conversed some more and through dance they bonded, not as distinguished warriors but as young individuals sharing with the other their hopes and dreams of the future. She wanted a life outside the ring and he dreamt of being a hero, however naïve it was the champion admired his resolve to pursue the dangerous profession with such childish hopefulness and found the notion honestly heartening.

The night ended and as the guests made for their humble abodes the two warriors found themselves by the balcony before parting ways. The midnight moon illuminated the scenery where the two warriors stood face to face, sherry glass in hand and newfound respect for the other.

"To your victory," the knight toasted to the Champion, "and hopeful new beginnings. May you find true kinship where-ever you end up.

"You fought valiantly Jaune and the match was too close a tie towards the end. A testament to your skill," she said as she too lifted her glass up to level with his and toasted.

"To the Vytal Festival," she said.

"To the Vytal Festival," he reciprocated the gesture.

With a resounding clink of clashing glass they drank to said promises and parted ways for the unforeseeable future.

...

...

...

* * *

 **Extra: Happy Days Indeed**

Now with some time to himself he looked into his inner pocket where the letter from earlier was green envelope was folded neatly by the center revealing one side of a familiar insignia, twin axes with a wreath around the edges. He pulled the custom parchment-paper letter inside which appeared to have been neatly handwritten, watermarked with the logo of twin axes and ink-stamped by a dignitary of some sort.

The letter read as follows …

* * *

 _Greetings Mr. Arc._

 _I am Professor Ozpin, Headmaster of Beacon Academy. It is with great pleasure that I extend to you an invitation to attend my humble institution under an early entry sponsorship, courtesy of Vale's tax-payers._

 _You have proven yourself an excellent combatant with an exceptionally powerful semblance in your repertoire, the mentoring staff at Beacon would be honored to help you hone your skills and reach your fullest potential._

 _Disclosed below are my personal contact details. Should you choose to accept the offer, do not hesitate to contact._

 _XXXXXXXX_

 _Signed_

 _OZPIN_

* * *

"…Oh neat," was his anti-climatic response to the sudden news. What more could be said.

With less congestion by the exit-way and the media mob cleared away he made for a return trip but not before sending a quick message to his better-half and extended family of the good news.

Things were looking up for him. He'd somehow managed to dance with two beautiful girls all in the span of one night and as he'd just found out earlier not only was he going to attend a huntsman academy a year early he was enrolled under an early-entry sponsorship with a personal invitation from the Head himself. Most importantly he was going to surprise the Champion in the Vytal Festival as per his silent vow.

"This day can't get any better, "he said to no one in particular as he pocketed his hands into the blazer's side pockets where he occupied his right hand with the glass construct inside.

As he neared the last of the exit a rather obtusely large man with an impressive tuft of orange hair ran up to him, in a 'jiggly' fashion all out of breath with a sheen of sweat glistening his forehead. In his hand he held a handkerchief which he used to wipe the sweat away when he neared him and extended the previously occupied hand out to greet him.

He was mildly unnerved by the man's poor hygiene but out of common courtesy and politeness he returned the gesture.

"Petros Hubbard," the man introduced himself with labored breath and even sweat forming on his face. Jaune slowed his pace to match the man's out of concern very much to the man's pleasure.

"I have an offer for you Mr Arc. One that I think you'll be very pleased with if your battle attire is any indication," he added much to the knight's confusion but decided to let the man elaborate.

"To the victor goes the spoils or so the saying goes…but Miss Nikos already had an agreement with us so the sponsorship deal with us still stands," the man said wiggling his brows at Jaune in some ploy to persuade him to agree to something he couldn't quite place.

"Who's us…," Jaune asked the man.

"Of course…Of course. I'm a representative for the Pumpkin Pete's talent agency."

"…oh…."

"How would you like to be the face of the new Pumpkin Pete's Gummy flakes," the portly man awkwardly bellowed with a puffy breath but to Jaune he may as well have been a chorus of angels whispering sweet sweet cornflake-y temptation.

"…double neat…," Jaune said with a toothy grin and with a deathly grip he took the man's hand in his and vigorously shook it.

* * *

 **Words: 2500**

 **A/N: Petros Hubbard - Red Hubbards are pumpkins or squash otherwise known as Red Kuri or Red Clay. And Petros is Peter. 1 + 1 = Pumpkin Pete. Adheres to the color naming theme too so ...neat.**

 **Most of the teams that competed in the Vytal Festival were OCs made by the community so I'll come up with a bunch of my own when I reach that part. Only thing i hate about OCs is that people aren't creative enough, for example Crimson Blut could be a cool name but the color theme is too obvious, kinda in your face and just plain edgy. _Subtlety_ is part of why i love the canon characters' names, you wouldn't associate Neptune with a color but the ocean instead which in turn  alludes to the color blue. _Subtlety and Allusion _ , to all aspiring writers of RWBY fan-fiction take note of these words i once heard from my English teacher.**

 **I got my timetable sorted out, but between work and assignments i won't be able to do much so I'll just wing it. I'll keep the exposition chapters short and the plot relevant/action filled ones medium to long.I like coming up with titles for the chapters so I'll keep them short for that reason, that and shorter chapters are easier to write, manage and edit. I actually have an end-goal on paper and some later chapters like initiation already scribbled somewhere so updates should be at the very worst 2 short chapter every 3 weeks.**

 **Up Next: Off to see the Wonderful Wizard**


	6. Proud of you Kid

Set hours before Jaune boarded a ship to Beacon

* * *

 **Proud of you kid**

* * *

 **Aegis Academy Training Grounds: Mildew Forest**

~Whistle~

The sharp noise lingered for an excruciatingly long few seconds, his ear-drums ringing with each passing breath till it became unbearable. With blood dripping from his nose and on the verge of fainting he wet his thumbs and clogged his canals to stop the sound from doing any further damage.

From behind the shrubbery came flying a glinting dagger, the sun reflecting off the edges warning him off its approach but with both hands occupying his ears he could do no more than attempt to evade the projectile. The dagger struck his chest true, a little bit of its force being absorbed by the chest-piece he wore but ultimately piercing through the graphene plate and digging a few centimeters into the flesh underneath. With a pained yelp he retreated further into the forest, lashing out every now and again picking up dust to confuse his pursuer.

He'd made some lee-way with his tactical retreat but halfway through he stopped all of a sudden. He whipped his head to and fro, taking in mere glimpses of the beautiful scenery of the Mildew forest with its towering fungi trees and bizarre plantation of varying unnatural colors. There was absolutely no sound coming from any direction what-so-ever, not even the static noise of the outdoors and despite the violently dancing leaves there was no sound that would indicate the windy temperate that would entail. The silence was unnatural hence his caution.

By instinct, his hand went over his shoulder where he normally sheathed his weapon but found nothing in its place. For but a second he assumed that he'd somehow been disarmed without his notice so he reacted with panic but quelled the weakness as soon as it came over him, he recalled the untimely fate that befell his Jian during the tourney. He steeled himself and changed stance into that of a boxer ready to receive and counter-attack. Without sight of his enemy he had to rely on his hearing, but the whistle from earlier had compromised his hearing.

From his left this time came another dagger aimed at his midsection. He would have dodged had he seen it, instead the blade struck his left arm just above the elbow, his aura-barrier congregated in the affected area blocking it somewhat successfully at the cost of an overall decent chunk of his reserves weakening his aura barrier. He shifted his attention to the direction whence the flying blade came from with fists bared and guard raised preparing for an attack.

In his panicked haze he failed to notice a red clad figure casually strolling up to him from his blindside and resting the cold dull end of her blade on his nape.

"Game over Jaune," she whispered into his ear to which his whole body stiffened in response, either to the blade pressed upon his neck or from how easily she bypassed his guard.

"Can you tell me what you did wrong," the woman asked sternly with her blade still pressed on his nape by the dull edge.

"My mistake was fighting a superior opponent without my full arsenal," he said so sure of his reply as he dipped himself low to a crouch, getting out of the blade's range and attempted to disarm her with a kick to the wrist which she firmly blocked by countering with a pommel strike to the shin effectively pushing him away.

"Good, good…but not quite." She sheathed the ornate blade into its custom-made housing resting on her left hip and let it fall to ground cluttering harmlessly. She raised her arms in boxer's guard matching Jaune's own and with blinding speed practically teleported into his guard.

"hmm…alright. I lost sight of you earlier which gave you the upper hand in ambush-tactics." He bobbed and weaved his head, left and right as he evaded hay-maker after jab after uppercut, not always in that particular order.

"~bzzzzt~," she said as she mimicked the sound of a game-show buzzer and crossed her arms to form an 'X' simultaneously blocking a straight-jab-counter from Jaune within her cross guard.

"uh…something to do with Aura, "he said, unsure. She smiled fondly at his answer but didn't bother telling him whether he was correct or not as she soon kicked him in the gut sending him flying straight through a couple meter width's worth of shrubbery and face first into a clearing near a water stream. She picked up the blade in its sheath and with brisk walking pace followed after him using the blade's sheath to hack through the shrubbery blocking her path.

He landed with a slide in the gravel with a noticeable dip of his aura reserves evident through the slowly healing light grazing on his left forearm caused by the friction burn from the rough landing. He righted himself to a standing position and tried to determine from which direction his opponent might appear from.

If the last hour and a half has taught him anything then she would first disorient his hearing or sight, then attack from a blind spot. Behind him was a decently wide clear stream of water with a sizeable jump to the other side so an attack from behind was out of question. An attack from his immediate front would be too obvious and too easily defensible so the logical plan of attack was to attack from the sides. To his right there was an area full of ruined trees with signs of a recent stampede marking the land and to his left was an area devoid of any flora bigger than a man-sized tree, grazing lands he assumed from the lush greenery littering the ground with a few spots missing every where-and-there.

The ruined trees would provide decent enough cover for an ambush whereas the grazing lands' lack of any tall trees would only serve to alert him of her presence. He heard the sound of a blade hacking through tree branches but with how wide the clearing was the sound was too spread out to pinpoint its source. He took a gamble and prepared for an attack from the right side.

The hacking noise stopped when it got closer and all that was left was the static noise of the forest. Jaune tensed himself and prepared to let loose when he felt a presence approaching, a sixth sense if you will, courtesy of aura.

A blur of red leather burst forth from his immediate front, with his attention mostly focused to his right he was for the most part unprepared to fully evade what came next. With a violent jerk he turned his body to face the oncoming assault and using the momentum gained he lashed out with a round-house kick in his opponent's general direction.

The kick careened over her head and she countered with a series of well-placed quick jabs to his solar plexus, knocking the breath out of him, depleting him of his aura and sending lances of pain throughout his whole body. He clutched his stomach to quell the pain and fell to his knees with a pained cough in between each labored breath. With blade in hand, she rested the flat of the sword on his left shoulder muscles with the dull edge just barely touching skin where a major artery was located.

"I give, I give…Miss Siren." He put his hand in the air in surrender as she returned the blade to its sheath once more.

"That's headmistress Siren to you," she said. "Not anymore, I suppose. You'll be a student of Beacon within the week, not of Aegis."

Though his aura was mostly depleted, the remainder steadfastly mended minor wounds in mere seconds as well as managing to quell the stinging pain in his gut just enough for him breath properly. The headmistress offered Jaune a helping hand as soon as he regained his second wind.

"Well…you still haven't told me what you did wrong," she said as she pulled him up to his feet and patting away any dust on him.

Side by side, student and teacher made their way out of the training grounds at a brisk pace as they made small talk to occupy the time.

"…I honestly have no idea. I know my hand-to-hand isn't perfect and I don't own a personal scroll outside of school so I can't monitor my aura like you always tell me to. Other than that I can't think of anything," Jaune answered.

"Your previous answers were all correct but not what I was looking for."

He hummed in response and waited for her to elaborate.

"You have ungodly reserves of aura and a semblance that borders magic even without the use of dust. Your skill with bladed weapons is amazing, especially for someone your age and while your hand-to-hand isn't that impressive you still managed to get a few shots in on me."

"I have you to thank for all that. You taught me everything I know Headmistress Siren," he said with a respectful bow, "still, that sounds a lot like praise and has absolutely nothing to do with our spar."

"For all that you are Jaune; your mind is, above all else, your greatest weapon. But it's also your greatest weakness. It's a good thing to be able to plan in the heat of battle but you have a bad habit of overthinking things and downright ignoring instinct, "she said earning a confused look from the knight.

"Guessing can only take you so far though," he said.

"Instinct isn't just guessing. I counted at least two instances when you could have landed a hit on me if only you stopped thinking and both those times were costly seeing how you ended up with a sword to your neck each time after. It's not something i can teach unfortunately so you'll have to make do by yourself."

"…," a moment of silence passed as they walked, during which he contemplated the meaning of her words and came to an unfortunate realization.

"Do you think I'm ready for Beacon," he all but whispered it but what with the silence of the forest his voice was just loud enough to carry. The headmistress stopped in her tracks and looked back to her student, who followed suit and had his head cast down in gloom and doubt.

"You've learnt more in five years than others older than you have their whole lives. Obviously you're nowhere near my level…yet. I do have more than a decade's worth of experience over you," she said to Jaune whose expression lightened up at her words of encouragement.

"I won't disillusion you about the huntsman life and I won't tell you what you want to hear. You're not ready for the hardships that the life entails and I know for a fact that the other students at Beacon are just as prepared for this as you are but I can tell you that you're not that little weak kid who snuck into my school five years ago." Standing face to face with him she put her hand atop his head and playfully rustled his hair leaving it an unkempt mop, the gesture earning a smile from the knight which she reciprocated.

The student and teacher stayed in position for a while longer, with her towering over him by a head or two and hand rested atop his head. This was surely the last time they'll ever stand side by side as mentor and apprentice.

The headmistress fondly recalled the first time she met the young knight all those years back, when he barely reached up to her waist and couldn't hold a butter knife for the life of him.

Memories of the following years flashed before her like a film reel as she caught glimpses of his growth from when he first unlocked his semblance, to the time when he forged his first 'sword' if the monstrosity he crafted could be called that, through to the after-hours she spent teaching him the intricacies of combat, academics and swordplay all the way to his first successful mission and the celebration after.

She swelled with pride at the memories and was on the verge of tears but held herself back, she had to remain strong, if not for him then for herself. The next time they meet, he will have grown into a young huntsman with equal if not greater skill to her own and worthy of being called her equal.

...

...

...

"I'm proud of you kid."

* * *

 **Words:2050**

 **A/N** : This was previously part of a larger file but decided to make it stand-alone because i kept editing it every time i opened word,i inadvertently spent more time on this than i did the rest of the removing it from the whole i could actually focus on everything else. I also wanted to try writing combat and dialogue as one. Unless a support character(usually OC) is relevant to the overall plot in some major way i prefer not to refer to them directly.

Beacon chapter will be finished sometime within the week.I'm just going over it and changing some things for the sake of logical flow, grammar and continuity.


	7. Off to see the Wonderful Wizard

**Off to see the Wonderful Wizard**

* * *

He fixed his sight to the rolling hills and mountains down below. The white cloud-scape spread out as far as his eyes could make out, with the occasional clearing which would reveal momentary glimpses of the greenery below and from high-atop within the freight, he could just barely make out the snow covered peaks of the high elevation mountains.

He'd long since finished reading his 'literature' and was trying to find something, anything to occupy the last stretch of his journey to Beacon. An endeavor that he was spectacularly failing at as it turned out cloud-watching wasn't exactly prime entertainment, especially if you just so happen to have motion sickness.

To his left and right, fellow student-hopefuls were strapped into their seats leaning onto the cold metal walls dozing off. How he envied them at that moment, the occasional episodes of motion sickness ensured that he wouldn't be able to fall asleep lest he wakes up drowning in his own sick.

With nothing of interest to occupy his time, Jaune's attention wandered to the farewell gift he received from his mentor.

Neatly wrapped in Black Velveteen cloth and tied together by threaded green-para-cord. If the long stick-like shape was anything to go by then the content of the gift was most definitely a sword. The oily smell of recently forged metal solidified his assumption but to sate his curiosity, he untied the cord holding the black cloth in place and pulled out the sword from within hilt first, with the cloth still covering most of the sheath.

Upon closer inspection, the sword was streamline in design and appeared to be a cross between a Valean straight-sword and a katana though leaning more to the Eastern design that he was familiar with. It had a simple rounded pommel at the bottom and a ' _black-metal_ ' ' _thread-bound_ ', ' _hand-and-half_ ' hilt that seamlessly blended with the guard. The guard itself being the most outstandingly ornate part of the blade not factoring the clearly custom-made sheath. The disc guard was designed to look like a flower of sorts with the petals blooming outward in a bell-curve that served to catch a blade within.

The sheath had a noticeable weight to it, enough to be unconventional but not so unwieldy that he couldn't swing it around as a blunt secondary. Like the hilt and disc guard, the sheath too was made of blackened metal with silver highlights, reminiscent of vines, running from the pommel all the way down the sheath.

Were he not in a freight with civilians aboard he would have unsheathed it to inspect the cutting edge and hopefully discover any other secrets the blade hid, but that could wait till later, preferably some time before initiation to accustom himself with it.

Instead he turned to running his finger along the metal thread-binding covering the hilt and the petals engraved onto the guard, which seemed to work excellently as a past-time such that enough time had passed that the skyline of Vale was now barely in view.

From the far-front of the Bullhead a girl, noticeably younger than Jaune, excitedly bounced in her seat as she peered the view of the looming city-scape inadvertently waking a few of the dozing initiates in her excitement. Another girl with the most luscious mane of blonde hair he'd ever laid eyes on, outside of family of course, unbuckled her seat-belt and stood herself next to the smaller girl, ruffled her black-red hair leaving it frizzly mess and got a jab to the ribs in return. Judging by their interaction with each other, he surmised they were siblings.

 _~ "Arriving at Beacon Cliffs in Five minutes. Please ensure you have your carry-on luggage in hand and prepare to disembark. Thank you." ~_

The announcement itself got little to no response from the still sleeping students but the squealing static that followed jolted them right up. Not many students had hand luggage except for their scrolls and the occasional book-bag so there wasn't much packing up being done, instead they all flocked to the windows overlooking the white brick structures of Vale.

With a lurching thud, the Bullhead's engine was partially cut off from supply to drop speed as it slowly approached the Landing Station near Beacon Cliffs. Visible from the distance obnoxiously standing out, was the Emerald Tower, a lighthouse from the Great War re-purposed to serve as the Headmasters' office and quarters.

The soft chime of wind-pipes playing over the PA got everyone's attention as they congregated to the hologram display near the exit where a recording was just running its course.

The visage of a stern looking woman with light-blonde hair popped up, she had on an expression that indicated maturity but her youthful looks would've made anyone think otherwise. She wore a long sleeved pleated top with a keyhole neckline and a modest-length pencil skirt completed by a fluttering purple cape that was stylized to end in arrows and flames with a row of beads on the back.

" _Hello, and Welcome to Beacon Academy,_ " the hologram spoke up.

Blondie from earlier offhandedly asked the small girl in red, "Who's that."

To which the hologram replied, " _My name is Glynda Goodwitch._ "

 _"You're among a privileged few who have been selected to attend this prestigious academy. Remnant is undergoing an era of unprecedented peace ,and as future Huntsman and Huntresses, it is your sworn duty to uphold that peace and fight for the just cause. **You** have all demonstrated the courage needed to undertake such a task ,and now it is **our** turn to provide you with the knowledge, guidance and training to protect our world."_

Glynda Goodwitch's pre-recorded welcome-address finished running its course and the hologram promptly disappeared just as the Bullhead made contact with the docking bay. With a hiss, the exit latch slowly slid down collapsing into a staircase and violently settled down. The initiates frantically rushed the door congesting the path as they all made to exit the Bullhead at the same time.

The motion-sickness medication(sugar-pills) had done its job well so far in quelling Jaune's bouts of vertigo but the abrupt altitude-change was apparently too much for him to handle so he charged for the trashcan by the exit, pushing past more students than he would have liked to annoy on his first day.

Onlookers passed by Jaune as he emptied his lunch, breakfast and everything else in-between into the trashcan, all with mixed opinion of the knight although most simply looked away from him and ignorantly made their way to the amphitheater for the Headmaster's briefing.

With blade slung over his shoulder and ruck-sack over the other shoulder he made for the amphitheater, though he was simply going in the direction with the most concentration of new students.

...

A short walk later, Jaune found himself in the courtyard of the Prestigious institution. It was clear to him that no expense was spared when it came to decorations, a path of marbled tiles embellished the trail leading to the front entrance of the school with stone pillars lining the edges. Looking to his respective right and left he saw a flux of new students and return-students alike walking around aimlessly back and forth, some either mingling with familiar faces and others clearly lost.

Continuing on-wards he reached the garden area, a lush green-scape littered with interesting topiary of grazing animals here and there, carpeted by a colorful ensemble of exotic flora arranged in the most eye-catching fashion and to his left in the walkway was a smoking crater with the small from earlier lying face-first inside.

There was smoke rising from the crater and soot outlined the area surrounding the crater indicating a recent explosion. The girl in red was currently being chastised by another girl of equally diminutive size with silver hair screeching at her something fierce whilst waving around a glass-phial of dust.

The entire affair was frankly quite amusing to Jaune for many reasons but most outstandingly was how casual people were about an explosion powerful enough to dent marble tiling and the concrete underneath, almost like it was a normal occurrence.

A third party stopped the conflict on less than bearable circumstances if the silver haired girl's expression was to be any indicator. Jaune was about to go his merry way when he noticed the redhead girl slumped to the ground, still in her crater clutching onto a metallic box of black and red. As if on auto-pilot he found himself walking towards her.

"Damn my brotherly instincts," he mentally cursed.

With care he approached her and heard her muttering something to herself."Welcome to Beacon," she said to no-one in particular.

"Hey there…need a hand."

The tiny girl hesitantly took his hand in hers to right herself up, dusted the soot and concrete flakes off her combat skirt and with a 'skip and a hop', she stood right up to face Jaune and introduced herself.

"Thanks, I'm Ruby," she said while shaking her head to dispel nervousness, "Ruby Rose. Nice to meet you."

"Jaune. Jaune Arc," he returned her greeting.

"…,"an awkward silence passed between the two. That was, unfortunately the extent of their collective social skill.

"So…what were you doing at ground zero," he teased, breaking the silence.

"Hey, don't judge...weren't you the guy who threw up in the trashcan. Vomit Boy," she quipped back in return with a mischievous grin which quickly turned into a regretful frown.

Jaune clasped his hands together loudly, "Let's both agree to never talk of this before I start calling you crater face."

Another awkward pause and hearty laugh later, the two made small talk as they made their way to the Amphitheater with neither in the lead.

Just as conversation topics were running thin, Ruby pulled out her red box and in attempt to fill the silence she jumped ahead of the knight stopping him in his tracks and pressed a button which activated the box' mechashift sequence.

"So…uh, I got this, "she said as the shift sequence ran its course.

The previously hand-held box unfolded itself, expanding into one of the most complicated pieces of weaponry Jaune had ever seen. With pieces jutting out left and right to form what appeared to be a scythe.

"What am I looking at," Jaune asked not out of dumbfounded curiosity but as someone who preferred the use of simple craft-works, a scythe that appeared to have a trigger, a mag feed and a rifle barrel that doubled for a pole-shaft, this was completely out of left-field.

"This…is Crescent Rose. A high caliber sniper-rifle/scythe," she added with a sheen of pride as she affectionately rubbed her cheek on the flat of the scythe's blade.

"…It's a scythe that's also a gun…"

"Yep...Made her myself at Signal."

"..." He was impressed,doubly so. Not only had she managed to craft such a complex weapon by her lonesome but she had an air of confidence to her that spoke volumes of her skill wielding one of the most dangerous weapons to ever exist. He wondered to himself but didn't voice his concern, who was drunk enough to teach an adorable little girl the art of using a weapon exclusively meant to kill in the most visceral manner imaginable.

"What do you have."

He un-slung the blade, still in its cloth wrapping and now that he wasn't within civilian space he pulled it out in its entirety. Unsheathing the thirty-some-inch blade, it had a pale green substance coating the entirety of both the cutting edge and hardened edge. The back-surface, blade-surface and ridge-line consisted of a blackened metal much like the sheath and hilt with no notable ornamentation to speak of.

He ran a finger across the length of the cutting edge and the green glow rubbed of onto his finger in form of dusty residue, the residue which he identified as dust. The sheath had two interchangeable course-blocks of green-dust lining the innards with space in-between for the blade to nest hence the weight to it. He assumed that the uncut dust lining the sheath's insides acted as a whetstone of sorts, such that whenever he drew the blade it would be sharpened as well as get a coating of dust running along the cutting edge.

"I just got it this morning actually so don't be disappointed when I tell you that I have no idea what it does," he said as he swung the sword upwards and downwards to accustom himself to its weight, unnecessary, as it was impeccably balanced and equally lightweight.

He sheathed the sword and handed it to Ruby who had her eyes practically glued to it for examination.

"It's a classic as far as I can tell, no gimmicks to it what-so-ever; if you don't count the propellant-dust inside the sheath. It looks eastern but the rigidity just screams western, a hybrid. The metals used appear to be non-ferrous with a largely Tungsten base, it's the closest to unbreakable as you'll ever get," she proceeded to demonstrate by tapping the blade and bending it in an attempt to flex it to which the blade remained stiff and otherwise unfazed.

"The sheath itself is very well balanced with a grip at the bottom, it's got a good length to it that you can actually use it as a blunt secondary;which I'm guessing you do. Sword and sheath style?"

"…yes…," clearly she knew more about a weapon that was supposedly his than he did himself.

"…he he…sorry about that. I'm a bit of a dork when it comes to weapons, so I tend to ramble when I see something I like," Ruby said with a flushed face as she retreated back into her own shell.

"Sorry? … Don't be, you know more about my own sword than I do at this point, you just saved me a frustrating phone call back home." He shrugged as she handed the sword back to him which he wrapped back into the cloth sling.

"So…are you going to name her," Ruby leaned in closer to Jaune who bent himself backwards to put some moderate space between them.

"I named my old sword after myself so…," he mused to his lonesome.

"Why?" She asked.

"It was a Jian," He replied offhandedly.

"Jian...Jaune. It was a pun." He didn't look to be lying and that only made it all the more worthwhile and endearing as she tried to stifle her laughter. As much as she hated puns, she appreciated the ones that cleverly incorporated with her interests, namely weaponry.

"You'd hit it off well with my sister," she said to him just as he finished thinking of a name.

"It's got green on it so something to do with the color," he said to himself.

"Be serious this time. Your weapon is a partner for life"

"How's Green Destiny," he said.

"It's…actually a decent name, If only you didn't get that from a flick it'd be perfect," she said with a knowing smirk gracing her features.

"..."

"Do you know where we're supposed to be going," Ruby asked after a moment of silence passed.

"I was following you."

"…I was following you as well."

Jaune fished his hoody pocket for something and gave a sigh of relief when he found a crumbled up piece of paper with the beacon logo afront with colorful demographics of little people holding weapons while posing triumphantly. He held it up to Ruby who was panicking at this point and hesitantly hovering around him trying to recall where she last saw other students.

"Good thing I still got the enrollment leaflet,it has the campus map on the back. Can you imagine what would have happened if I threw this away."

"Well thank Oum you didn't…Lead the way," Ruby's panic disappeared turning into relief when he showed her the map.

The two followed a path of pale yellow tiles, color coded for convenience, all the way to the amphitheater of to see the Headmaster. Map in hand Jaune led the way with Ruby in tow skipping just a step behind.

* * *

 **Words:2840**

A/N: The events that follow happen exactly as they do in canon without change. Might as well just rip-off the script for all first three episodes so i wont write Ozpin's speech and the sleepover(too much dialogue and a whole lot of nothing going on as well as humor,which I'm not confident enough to properly execute).

Still haven't found the right balance between exposition and dialogue. Some scenes require one and not the other to do properly so please bear with it, the reviews so far have been most helpful and I'll thrive to improve myself with every chapter uploaded.

* * *

Jaune's new sword is named after one of the greatest weapons ever to grace television, for those of you who'd like an image to associate with my description of it:the hilt and disc guard should be somewhat like the **Nikana** (katana from Warframe)google images should have plenty images of it, the body is that of a **Dao straight sword**.

Despite fighting like a Wuxia I still think of Jaune as a knight. Its still a knightly fighting style, just different era of origin.

Wuxia | **Wu** = Martial Arts/Military/Armed **Xia** = Knight-errand or Hero/Chivalrous - **very rough** translation

* * *

Time-skip to the Next Morning then Initiation.

Up Next: Early Bird/Locker-room Debacle/Forest of Dead Leaves/The Thunder-My Hammer


	8. Early Birds

**== Skip to Next Chapter for the Important bit ==**

* * *

 **Interesting First Impression  
**

A half hour before initiation started, students were readying themselves. The Larks, early risers, had already had their breakfast while it was hot and were convening in the locker rooms for weapon check-up, storage and outfitting their combat gear. The owls, those who had stayed up all night doing whatever, were just now crawling into the cafeteria to have breakfast which had gone cold hours ago, before heading to the locker rooms to collect weapons and head for the cliffs.

The in-betweeners had woken up relatively early, early enough to have a warm breakfast and were just now waiting for the call to initiation and join the owls in the locker rooms. One such student, Jaune, was seated in the dead-center of the cafeteria with an empty plate that once had a short-stack of pancakes and eggs.

He rolled up his sleeves and ran his fingers through his gold tresses back to front styling his hair to a back-slick as he looked around the cafeteria at his fellow initiates. He'd been hoping to find some familiar faces to hitchhike with to pass time, preferably Ruby. Failing at that, instead he opted to use his free time to scout for potential teammates and so far, no one had capture his interest, save for one that is. A girl with a tuft of short orange hair and clothed in pink themed battle raiment.

She stood out from the other students for many a reason. Her voracious appetite was one such reason.

He'd been staring at her for a bit now, while she inhaled tray after tray of flat cake confectionery topped with sickeningly copious amounts of syrup. The sight was quite frankly mesmerizing and somewhat endearing, never had he seen someone eat with such … passion was one way to put it, the sight reminded him of his sisters at family gatherings.

Seated beside her was another interesting individual, clad in green with a streak of pink, clearly the two knew each other before Beacon judging from how they actually interacted with the other instead of mopping around like the other students, albeit one-sidedly, that and their shared theme of pink.

"~Hi~…"

During his contemplation and observation, he had stopped paying attention to his surroundings and fellow students. While lost in thought, the girl had somehow slipped from his sight and moved closer to him, now standing just behind him accompanied by her green-clad companion.

"It's rude to stare, y'know," she said with a teasing grin as she rested her hand to her hip.

"Sorry about that. Didn't mean to stare and all," He apologized to her sheepishly as he rubbed the back of his head.

"Just never seen someone eat with such…passion. Seriously those pancakes were just disappearing on the plate."

"What can I say, I'm a growing girl. A girl's gotta eat," she said.

"Jaune Arc," bemused, he stood up from his seat and extended his hand to her in greeting.

"Nora Valkyrie," she introduced herself. "and this is Ren, my bestest friend," she motioned to boy clad in green who stood behind her.

"Enchanté, Nora. Pleasure meeting you, Ren," with a courteous bow to Nora and a handshake to Ren. He was a gentleman like that.

"Likewise," Ren replied and returned the handshake.

' _Initiates, this is your last reminder. Please put your weapons in the lockers provided and make your way to the bullheads for transportation. You have twenty minutes remaining.'_

"You need to put anything away," Jaune asked the two.

"We did that yesterday," Nora replied and Ren simply nodded.

"Well then, shall we," he pushed the cafeteria door open as he motioned the two to go first.

"Wonder what kind of stuff they'll make us do for initiation," Nora inquired to the two boys who shrugged unknowingly in response. "You think they'll throw us off that cliff," she said pointing to the cliff-face near the landing port.

"I'm sure the Headmaster is a reasonable man and wouldn't endanger minors like that," the voice of reason spoke up in form of Ren.

"We won't know till we get there," Jaune said as they made for the Bullhead port for transportation all the while making small talk with Nora who spoke enough for Ren.

 **Locker Room Debacle**

To say Pyrrha was ecstatic would do her no justice.

She'd managed to avoid the notice of conniving nobles as well as conspiring business-men to apply for Beacon. By now she was sure, the lot back in Mistral were wondering where their beloved Champion was.

Attending Haven was something everyone had come to expect of her as such she figured it would be the place where she'll get the most _unwanted recognition_. To avoid being noticed by the media and hopefully start afresh where not many would've recognized her she was left with only one choice of Academy.

Atlas was home to the Schnees and that would've brought with it far more attention than she could ever stomach. The political intrigue of Mistral that she'd been subject to her whole life would've seem like a children's game compared to the _convoluted drama_ that entailed the Schnee name.

Shade was a…possible choice. There was always some shady dealing happening in the background that the students were guaranteed to almost-always have something equally questionable to do than pay attention to a small-time celebrity. Had it not been for negative _social-stigma_ about Vacuo ingrained into her from youth by her parents, she would've considered enrolling.

Beacon was her only choice, for many reasons but of them all two were prominent. Beacon was in Vale and in turn, separate from Mistral by an ocean and stretches of land in-between. CCT-wide broadcasts between continents was an unnecessary luxury that not many indulged in thus the chances of people recognizing her from the tournament fight were very slim, not non-existent but compared to the other academies they were slim. That and for the sake of meeting a certain someone the following year.

With that high note in mind she walked to the specialized lockers for weapon storage with a hop in her step, nothing could spoil her mood.

"Excuse me…Pyrrha Nikos," someone called for her attention.

"~Hello," she turned around to meet whoever called her.

In front of the Champion stood a familiar face, dreadfully familiar. Absolute-white hair and light-blue eyes, wearing _blue, white and grey_ battle-raiment. All trademark features of Atlas high society, namely the Schnee family.

"I'm Weiss Schnee and I have a proposition for you Pyrrha," the Heiress said. "Beneficial for the both of us, of course."

"Lovely," Pyrrha squeaked out nervously.

"Excellent.I knew you'd agree. I was thinking that the smartest girl in our year, me," her modesty clearly showing as the Heiress motioned to herself, "and the strongest girl in our year," she motioned to the Champion, "should partner up."

"…," Pyrrha was left speechless, this was not the fresh start she had envisioned. Things couldn't possibly get any worse at this point.

"You and I are clearly a cut above the rest, it's only natural that we cement a partnership," the Heiress voiced out. The other initiates slinked away from being down-talked by the Heiress thus avoiding the two further distancing her away from any potential friends.

"Partner selection might be randomized, so I was thinking of letting the chips fall where they may," Pyrrha reasoned, she was sure the school wouldn't randomize something like that, but at this point she was willing to leave her fate to a coin flip.

"Nonsense…," the Heiress who wasn't having any of it started to refute Pyrrha but was cut off by an announcement.

' _Initiates, this is your last reminder. Please put your weapons in the lockers provided and make your way to the bullheads for transportation. You have twenty minutes remaining.'_

At that they both hurried with stowing away their weapons save for a few phials Weiss had taken to keeping on her person at all times. Conversation would have resumed at the same pace as before had it been for a certain blonde hitch-hiking into their conversation.

"So Cereal girl…Ice Queen, you psyched for this. I heard that last year they threw the first years off a cliff," the blonde girl said as she hung off Pyrrha's shoulder and attempted to do the same with the Heiress who evaded her advances.

"Excuse you…do you know who you're talking to?" Somehow offended, the Heiress squeaked something fierce at the blonde.

"Sure I do. You're the Ice queen who blew up my sister yesterday and that's the cereal girl Ruby has a crush on," she said matter of factually.

"Pyrrha Nikos," ignoring the comment about a potential classmate pining after her, she extended a hand in greeting as she introduced herself to a potential friend.

"Yang Xiao-Long," the blonde introduced herself, "Got a name Ice Queen?" she inquired of the Heiress.

The Heiress harrumphed and humbly introduced herself, "Weiss Schnee, Heiress to the SDC. It'll do you well to remember the name."

"…right then 'Princess'," Yang dismissed her, "If you gals are done here then let's get to it. Heard we're being shipped off to a mountain for initiation so bring some climbing gear."

The mountain bit...that was news to the other two, their minds raced as they tried to think of what trials that would entail. The more thought they put to it, the more questions they had so they immediately dismissed the thought.

On the way to the Bullhead depot, Yang made small talk with Pyrrha as they'd become quick friends in the few minutes that passed, with conversation topics on their predictions as to how partners are formed and the nature of trials beacon had in store for them. They made it to the Bullhead barely on time only to be abruptly split apart as they were assigned to different groups, each one to a different Freighter.

...

...

Elsewhere, Ruby nervously sat at the back of a Bullhead, jittering nervously in place as the freight's engine thrummed to life and slowly hovered before take-off. To her left, outside the window she could see three other freights in similar phase flying alongside. The vehicle hovered above the red forest for a good thirty minutes until they were overhead an interesting misshapen mountain whence the freights split up,each one headed to a different section of the mountain.

From atop the freight she could make out the cloud cover touching the flat mountain peak and several black birds of prey dangerously circling the mountain, large enough to be identifiable as Nevermore but not quite enough to threaten the freights.

As the vehicle landed a buzz emanated from every student's scroll, an address from the Principal it displayed.

The address, which was obviously the details as to the nature of the trials to come, played out one every students scroll. Eyes glued to their devices they astutely paid attention to the recording that followed.

=====To be Continued=====

* * *

 **Words:1897**

Sorry for the weak chapter, as said before English isn't my first language and this is my first serious attempt at any creative writing. As practice I plan on writing more stories(check my prof page in a few days or so) and use what i learn from them in this.

A/N: Had 3 group assignments due last Friday so that took up most of time, way more than it should have. I have a bunch more coming up but they're individual, so thank god for that, IT people don't communicate. A room with them is a four dimensional shape i swear to god, everyone is in their own corner somehow.


	9. Nidus Plateau

**==The Important bit ==**

* * *

 **Nidus Plateau  
**

* * *

 **Black-Nest Mountain**

Deep down in the heart of the Forest of Dead leaves, leagues away from Academy grounds lies the Nidus Peak. A mountainous formation in form of a rare combination between a Dome and a Fold, with four faces in each cardinal direction, elevated 3,500 feet above sea level with a Mesa at the summit.

To the west-face of the mountain lies a cavernous system that cuts through the mountain hollow with winding paths within, leading to the summit. The cave-system is home to a cyclone of Minor Deathstalkers with the possibility of an **Empress** presence. _ **(A)**_

The south-side of the plateau is a downward slope with a zig-zagging path cut into it that leads all the way to the top with treacherous natural fauna-and-flora hazards at every corner. Along the hiking trail lies a marsh-land area known as the Ocean of Kings, courtesy of the **King Taijitus** that ravage the path and burrow into the muddy earth, in wait of unfortunate passers-by. ** _(D)_**

Northwards near the base of the peak, lies the ruins of a city from a time long past, built into the mountain-side atop a plate boundary. Generation after generation of constant Plate-Tectonic-Collisions have left the land scared by a deep ravenous chasm that swallowed a significant portion of the ruins. The man-made structures that do remain, have been, overtime, subjected to constant landslides thus rearranging them into a winding maze. Centuries of neglect has left the ruins a dark-and-damp wreck, a perfect habitat for arachnid-class Grimm, namely the **Black-weavers** which infest the area by the thousands - _rough census: outdated._ _ **(C)**_

The east-side of the mountain is a vertical climb consisting of loose sediment, sharp-and -jagged hand-holds as well home to Nevermore egg deposits, hence the name **Nidus**. The juvenile Grimm are weak and underdeveloped enough to not warrant a warning on their own, but coupled with the thousand-foot drop they serve as deadly hazards, should they push you off. **_(B)_**

 _(Oobleck, B , Port, P) (XX17). Guide to the Remnant-Wilds. 4th ed. Vale: Beacon Academy, Chap 4. abstract_

* * *

Four groups (designated A to D) of fifty odd-some students each, found themselves at the base of the mountain in locations of varying description as per the excerpt on their scrolls. They were surrounded by creatures of darkness on all sides, unarmed and frankly terrified of what was surely to follow.

"Yesterday, all initiates were asked to stow away their weapons in specialized lockers for easy storage," a live recording of the Headmaster was broadcasted to all students via scroll.

"And now, you find yourselves within enemy territory. Without your much-favored weapons, armed with only your wits and guts about you," the white-haired gentleman said as he took a long sip of a black substance.

"Welcome to the Black-Nest Mountain. Second most-dangerous boundary in Vale and eleventh in Remnant, previously known as the Nidus Plateau." The statement elicited mixed expressions from the students, who were either second-guessing their enrollment and others shaking in anticipation.

"Your task is to make your way to the top of the Plateau via a designated route, where you'll find a beacon for extraction as well as your weapons inside marked containers," the display changed to the visual of a weapon locker with a digital-lock by the side, the animation changed to show the insides transitioning through wire-frames and glitching slightly before showing a generic Valean-army rifle-sword accompanied by an ammo canister and puzzle-piece tile in a glass container.

"There, you will partner up with a fellow initiate by matching the puzzle-pieces inside the containers," the headmaster's voice sounded as the budget animation showed the puzzle piece click into place with a matching tile, followed by four others forming a singular square tile.

"Each tile will only have two possible matches of which will be determined by myself, Miss Goodwitch and a handful of staff whilst you take the test, so you just focus on making your way to the top for extraction. Team formations and partner assignments will be based on individual and group synergy," That is to say, the school decided who gets to be partners and teammates for the next four years without student input.

"Before you proceed, need I remind you go over the pamphlet once more. The trial will be gruesome and you will likely be facing death at every corner. If you feel that you're not up for the task then step back onto the Bullhead, you're better off ' ** _safe and alive_** ' than ' _ **prideful and dead**_ _'_." Well more than a handful of students from each group had already started making their way to the Bullhead in resignation, heads down in shame back to their disapproving mothers and fathers.

"Along the paths you'll take, you'll meet some senior students and instructors alike. They're the ones responsible for taking you to safety should you be injured or choose to forfeit, at which point you'll be exempt from today's test and be given a choice to complete a different path later this week," the headmaster said as he finished up his address.

"Forgive an old man…I've talked too long. I'll leave you young-ones to it." The scroll-wide broadcast abruptly cut-off, leaving the initiates murmuring amongst themselves while the numbers whittled down from a hundred faces to a mere handful as they retreated into the freights in understanding that the high reward promised wasn't worth the impossibly high risk.

From within a myriad of doubtful and hesitant faces, a brave handful proceeded to climb the peak without so much as a shred of uncertainty, plunging head-first into the Den of death.

* * *

 **Words: 925**

A/N: I'm so sorry about the dialogue heavy chapter and short length but it was unfortunately necessary, i assure you. I hate the start of initiation, i hate reading it and i hate writing it even more. Its made even more unbearable by Professor Exposition(Ozpin) who ends up talking too much. Dialogue should never be used exclusively as exposition.

I won't spend too much time on Initiation but it'll be a while till i get to the Tournament fights.

 **Nidus** means **egg deposit**.

A **Mesa** is a flat-surface are atop a mountain.


	10. Nidus Staircase

**Nidus Staircase**

* * *

 _Group B :Vertical Rock Face_

The Heiress upon her back, her breath evening-out and aura slowly replenishing. The climb so far had been absolute torture, a trial designed to strain both mind and body to the extreme. Rock climbing was not on the list of things the Heiress had been 'groomed' to do and as such, she had taken a pit-stop to recover, inside a naturally formed indentation, carved into the side of the mountain face.

Her eyes glazed upwards to the sky and from the corner of her eyes she could just barely make out the peak of the Plateau, just another thousand-feet away she told herself.

She ripped yet another strip of cloth from her now ruined combat skirt and made another layer of arm-wrap with the thin fabric, doubling her arm protection.

The hand-holds and foot-rests had proven themselves to be as sharp as razor and crumbled apart so readily they may as well have been made from puff pastry. The already bloodied white-fabric wrapped around her hand was now a brilliant shade redder, thanks to the cuts underneath bleeding through.

Barely two hours into the test and she'd yet to make it to the half-way mark, with more than a few close encounters with death along the way.

Thus-far, she'd seen a total of twenty-six students call in emergency extraction and each time, she too had been tempted to drop out and try a different route some other day. She'd been assigned to this route for a reason and she refused to give up now, least she goes back crawling to her tyrant of a father.

Fifteen had slipped up and had to be exempt from the trial due to loss of aura, with less than seven near-fatal casualties thanks to the Headmistress' utile semblance somehow catching the falling students mid-fall.

Weiss ❄: █ █ █ █ █ 51%

She checked her scroll for an aura count and when she'd recovered enough she soldiered on. With a huff and a puff, she lifted herself upwards, using her soft inner-palm (where the padding was heaviest) to support her weight as she lifted herself further up the mountain whilst avoiding notice of the flying hazards.

The number of juvenile Nevermore had been increasing the further up she climbed, none of them big enough to do any significant damage if they directly attacked but still a danger nonetheless. A few too many students had been swooped by the creatures and knocked off the mountain face to their inevitable doom.

To her far left, another student with burnt-orange hair had taken to using the ripped sleeves of his clothing as an arm wrap much like herself, albeit too late as she could see the slowly-healing shredded skin showing muscle underneath, from before he decided to use his brain and protect his arms. Like the macho-man he thought he was being, he would grunt heavily with each heave wasting precious oxygen and putting too much pressure in his fingers wearing out the handholds and arm wrap.

'Caww'

The boy's grunting had bounced off the mountain face enough to alert the Nevermore of both their positions and she was about to pay for his idiocy. A murder of the creatures appeared to intercept their ascent, five of them to be exact.

The first one swooped in onto the boy, who simply swatted the overgrown chicken-sized creature away with a right back-hand. The finger-pocket held together despite him violently gripping it a second later.

Two more of the juvenile Nevermore swooped in onto the boy, each one from a different side. The first one rested atop his head and went straight for the eyes, to which he tried to shield himself but lost grip in his right hand-hold thusly. Immediately after, he recovered but the finger-pocket was already coming apart in crumbling pieces of sediment for it couldn't support his weight any longer than he'd held onto it. The second creature aimed for his foot hold and managed to nip at his ankle with its beak but to no effect thanks to aura, thus it circled back to its pack to try again.

The fourth bird had ignored the boy and went straight for Weiss who had scooted a good distance away from the boy but not far enough to escape notice it would seem. The creature took off further up into the skies to nose-dive towards her and knock her off with the force accumulated.

Weiss simply waited for the creature to reach a peak in its ascent before summoning a glyph.

Without a focus(rapier) and dust the process drew more aura and took longer than she would've liked, but fortunately, the Nevermore gave her just enough time to summon one by flying higher and higher.

Slowing it down mid-fall with a 'negative-dilation' glyph wouldn't have done much since the Nevermore would've still hit her and draw on her already-low aura reserves, so instead she accelerated its ascent thereby altering its projected-course going-down by a few degrees.

As the creature reached a peak in ascent it turned itself around to begin its descent. From the looks of it, it hadn't noticed its increased speed going up much to Weiss's glee. Taking aim at the Heiress position, it nosedived towards her at breakneck speed. She stopped in her trek as she witnessed the beauty of mathematics in play as the Juvenile plummeted towards her.

Every degree counts in ballistics.

By going further up than it had projected and with more speed than necessary, the Nevermore's course was altered to miss the Heiress by a literal centimeter, enough to miss her body completely, careening straight past her head with a 'whizz' and splattering it onto the rock face in a black and purple mess.

Weiss ❄: █ █ █ █ 44%

Satisfied with her work she climbed further up to avoid notice from the remaining creatures and when cleared she looked to her side where the boy was.

The remaining four juveniles had taken to attacking at the same time, nipping at his fingers and pecking at his face. Despite the distractions, his aura held true and his resolve even firmer as he ignored the creatures.

He climbed a few meters up, with the murder still onto him and his aura visibly straining but still, he soldiered on. Such strength of will was to be respected, the Heiress admitted to herself.

Another few meters up and his expression was starting to show anger. His resolve slipping with each peck from the creatures.

A shimmering reddish glow surrounded his being as his aura-shield reached its limit, fragments of light flaking off with each assault from the Juveniles. With a visible burst, the barrier came apart leaving him defenseless. The creature pecked away at his fingers, which had healed from before, drawing blood each time and weakening his grip.

After a torturous eternity, he finally succumbed. Not to the Nevermore juveniles, no, he'd stayed on one handhold for too long and it crumbled leaving him with nothing to hold onto and thus sending him falling off the rock face.

He screamed as he slipped but he never fell. He'd been suspended mid-air, with glowing purple glyphs clinging onto his clothes and Armour, a tell-tale sign of the Headmistress' semblance Weiss figured. From her angle, she couldn't see the witch's position but she didn't dwell on the thought too long and continued her trek.

In the gruesome hour that followed, a few students had passed her by. Some she'd seen floating back down to safety after falling off, and some she assumed had made it to the top since she hadn't seen them come back down.

The higher she climbed the more strained her breath had become. Living in Atlas where the constant cold ensured the air was always thin, the dangers of high-elevation were nothing new to her thus the loss of aura was insignificant. The only hazard to her being was the Nevermore juveniles which seemed to grow exponentially in size and populous depending on elevation, but she'd managed to expertly avoid them and sometimes clip them by freezing their wings mid-flight with varying degrees of success.

Weiss ❄: █ █ █ 32%

With barely a kilometer left to climb she would've sped her ascent but she took it slowly instead. The finger-pockets and foot-holds had been lessening as she neared the peak since the rock face was no longer jagged.

The remainder of the ascent consisted of smooth-rock with millimeter wide hand-holds. She'd tried to reserve her aura for use in the last stretch and with just three bars left she figured she had enough to hack her way to the top.

Aura coalesced into her finger tips, spreading out unevenly to the rest of her hand leaving her aura barrier running on fumes.

Weiss ❄: █ █ █ 26%

A layer of frost covered her fingers and ran halfway up her arm, such was how Semblance manifested with her body and being as a focus. Ice spikes formed where her hands graced, creating temporary handholds for her to use on the smooth rock face. To converse aura, she'd formed them with the purpose of being rigid but not lasting so her ascent was hastened accordingly.

Weiss ❄: █ █ 22%

Thanks to subtle use of 'Haste' she'd covered a decent distance in her ascent, such that she'd reached an area with vegetation and could now rely on hanging vines to facilitate an energy conserving climb and in other places uses the moss as hand-grip.

Ignoring the thin ozone and the greenery(moss) smearing her dress, the remainder of the climb was proving itself less gruesome than the start. For reasons she dared not question least she jinx herself, the juveniles had stopped appearing after she reached the mossy area.

Left hand gripping a hand hold and both feet supporting her, she heaved herself onto the cliff edge of the peak as she finished her ascent. She allowed a moment to pass as she dangerously hung off the edge, eyes closed and a deep breath outwards, the fatigue of a four-hour climb made itself apparent.

"Need a hand," she heard a voice calling out to her. A figure extended a helping hand her way which she accepted. She wanted to berate whoever the figure was for dragging her on the ground thus dirtying her raiment with even more greenery but the fatigue took her voice away for only an exhausted sigh escaped from her mouth.

"The others just took off on a Bullhead a couple minutes ago. Next one is in…," the figure, whom the heiress still couldn't make out the features of, paused as if in thought and hazarded a guess," three hours or so. I'm still waiting for Ren so I'll stay with you till you get your breath back"

The figure sat down next to her limp form with a plop, covering the sun from the Heiress and making its features known to the Heiress. Gracing her sight was a girl with a tuft of orange hair wearing a pristine combat skirt and Armor that still had shine to it, the cloth remained untouched and the pink fabric was without a smidge of dirt or greenery on it.

"How…are you not…covered…in…dirt, you did…climb…right?" Weiss wheezed out a question in between labored breaths as adrenaline slowly poured in to give her second wind.

The girl laughed out loudly at the Heiress' question, "There's more than one way up a mountain y'know," she stated in a matter-of-factly manner.

"When you're ready, I can show you where to collect your weapon," the girl said.

"I'm Nora by the way," she introduced herself and started chattering to herself about pancakes and ridiculous dreams or some-such nonsense, in her tired stupor the Heiress could do nothing but listen to Nora going off on all sorts of tangents.

Nora : █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ 84%

Weiss ❄: █ █ █ █ 43%

In the midst of Nora extravagant tales, the Heiress let her thoughts slip elsewhere. She wondered to herself how the others who took different routes fared on their paths, surely they weren't experiencing the hell that was listening to someone chattering endless about topics she didn't know enough to care about and too tired to even ignore.

* * *

 **Words:2091**

A/N:Tried my hand at action that wasn't necessarily fighting but conflict nonetheless. Figured action sequences would be easier to keep track of if they're portrayed play by play.

With the exception of Jaune and Pyrrha, the others had their routes decided by a dart board and coin toss. Let it be known that t'was I that first wrote Weiss mountain climbing. Had the decision not been randomized, I would have put Weiss on the path with the spiders for comedic effect but alas, the magic dart board has spoken.

Unicode: ❄


	11. Ocean of Kings

**Ocean of Kings**

* * *

"Arrgh – Oh God it burns," a thuggish-looking boy screamed out in pain. He'd brushed past a particularly nasty strain of Ivy that unlike the common strain, caused more than just a skin irritation. Within seconds of exposure, the boy's skin turned a Grimm shade of purple as the top skin-layer slowly decomposed spoiling the blood running underneath.

Now weary of the flora, the other initiates had formed a circle around the student who was writhing desperately, clutching his hand as they murmured to themselves, unsure of how to respond. He wasn't the first to fall prey to the flora and his case certainly wasn't the worst they'd seen.

' _This is not worth the pain_.' After having lost almost half the group, no casualties of course, to either a Beawolf ambush or accidental brush against brightly coloured plants, such was the consensus amongst them as some of them carefully drew back thusly.

"Quit staring and help dammit," he screamed out.

Without proper knowledge of toxins, staring was the only thing they could do. The remaining students apologetically dismissed themselves and went their way, leaving him to his pain.

One student from the group stayed behind though, wearing green robes and a distinct pink streak in his hair. He moved towards the boy and took a knee next to him.

"Your name?" the green robed student inquired of the afflicted student.

"Russell," he said in-between pained breaths. "…If you have to piss on it to stop the pain…then just get it over with mate."

"No I'm not going to do that, that'd only make it worse."

From the sleeves of his robe, he pulled out a gauze which he bundled up into a wad. Russell stopped squirming after a while, his focus on his helper and whatever he was doing. The green-clad student dipped the wad of cloth into Russell's canteen and used the now wet cloth to clean the affected area.

"Most strains of Ivy are oil-based toxins, so you can't treat them with water…and definitely not urine." Despite his warning against water, there he was going against his own advice.

"This one isn't oil-based nor is it Ivy. You brushed against some Inkweed leaves. There's not much I can do right now to stop the pain but I can stop the spread of the toxin," he said.

As he said so, he used the cloth to wipe of the dusty toxic residue atop Russel's afflicted wound which was now swelling up, courtesy of the human/faunus-immune-system so readily using the nuclear option to flush out toxins.

"I've removed the spikes, so there's no more toxins flooding your system. The pain won't stop unless you get proper treatment so I suggest you call for an emergency extraction when you can," the boy said.

"Will do mate…Your name," Russell inquired.

With a courteous bow, "Ren. Lie Ren," he introduced himself as he took to continue his way on the way.

"I owe you one Ren," Russel called to Ren from a distance.

…

"That was kind of you," from behind cover of the forest, a tower of a girl sporting the deepest shade of red hair he'd ever seen approached him.

"I would've done something If I knew what to do…so on his behalf I thank you," while maintaining a good distance in-between she thanked him for his charity.

"No need…It would have been near-fatal if left uncleaned," Ren replied.

"Ren was it…I'm Pyrrha," she extended a hand in greeting. "Don't mind me tagging along…we seem to have parted with our comrades but I should be able to take us in the right way, if you'll have me."

Ren: █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ 97%

Pyrrha: █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ 98%

In response Ren simply nodded in agreement with a bow and continued on ahead of Pyrrha. Without need of further introduction, Ren found no reason to initiate conversation, that was more Nora's forte than it was his.

Pyrrha would occasionally stop to re-orient their path whenever they strayed from the course through subtle use of polarity. And they safely trekked through winding pathways, avoiding dangerous flora thanks to Ren's knowledge on such matters while fending off the occasional stray Beawolf or charging Boarbatusk.

From time to time, Pyrrha would attempt to break the silence with small talk but would choke on her nerves and retreat to her lone musings while leading the way.

After a long hike up the trail, Ren stopped suddenly, as he had been doing the whole while whenever they encountered too many Grimm to face off unarmed. He took a crouch behind cover of oak branch and Pyrrha followed suit.

Peering from behind the cover of trees they could just make out their fellows who'd scoured ahead of them scattering like hornets disturbed, having disturbed an unseen danger.

Ren took a breath to steady himself, his aura, a magenta coat of light shimmering in tune as it covered his being and diminished his presence. Pyrrha kept her gaze at the happenings upfront, as a horde of students burst through the forest cover in a messy scrum pushing into each other as they ran past, ignoring the two.

Ren: █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ 82%

Pyrrha: █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ 91%

"Three hostiles blocking the path to my three o'clock. King Taijitus," Ren spoke up to which Pyrrha nodded in understanding.

"Can we fight them?" Pyrrha asked Ren who put a hand to his chin in thought but nodded in disagreement after a moment passed. Three at the same time would have been too difficult even with their weapons.

"Can we go around them?" she asked yet again to which Ren paused in thought while looking to-and-fro.

"We'd have to get back to the base of the mountain and take a different fork path, which is what everyone else is doing right now I think," he replied.

"And waste three hours of progress…"

Ren looked Pyrrha's way as she mulled over the possible routes they could take, despite having known each other for a collective two hours he'd grown fond of her…he'd grown fond of the silence she brought, to be precise.

He put his hands flat on the ground and sent a portion of his aura Pyrrha's way, who looked back to him questioningly but decided against voicing her concern as the noise would alert the Grimm of their presence.

"That should conceal our presence but only for a while so…on my mark we run towards the marsh area as fast as we can," he said to which Pyrrha nodded in agreement.

Ren: █ █ █ █ █ █ █ 75%

While still portioning his aura to Pyrrha, they waited for the Grimm to pass by in their pursuit of the student body.

A second passed and the ground shook, the quake bringing with it a horde of gargantuan Grimm coming their way. From afar they heard trees snapping in half as well as the tell-tale hissing noise of the snake-creatures.

The first of the monochrome beasts burst forth from the foliage, slithering its way after the students while bulldozing through tree branch after tree branch in its path. For a second it seemed as if it would run through the tree Pyrrha was hiding behind but by some stroke of chance, its snaking weave was such that the tree was in its path but its body would always wave around to avoid hitting it.

Ren: █ █ █ █ █ █ █ 72%

Another handful passed and two more beasts of similar size and description to the previous one followed, adding to the path of destruction their predecessor left. Ren had to jump out of the way as one of the creatures took down the tree he was hiding behind with its tail when it slithered. Unlike the first King Taijitu, these two left a snail trail of wet moss and mud, carry-ons from their marshy-habitat presumably.

Seconds ticked away as they waited for the three creatures to get as far away enough from them so they could make headway towards the marsh area where the shortest path to the top lay.

Ren was sweating bullets with his hands pressed to the ground as he shared aura with Pyrrha to conceal their presence. Fortunately for him, the three Grimm were still hot on their pursuit of the students and by then, there was enough distance between them and the creatures that they could safely make a run for the top without worrying about the creatures coming back for them.

Cutting the flow of his aura and stopping its spread, he signaled for Pyrrha to go ahead while he caught his breath.

"They just ignored us, one of them looked me in the eye but it just ignored me…was that your semblance Ren," she asked him as she helped him up, wide-eyed in awe and somewhat saddened. Semblance was the manifestation of the soul and served to reflect an individual's state of being, she wasn't sure what such an ability entailed of Ren's being.

Heaving gulps of air with his head hung low, he simply gave her a weak thumb up in dismissive agreement as he dragged himself behind her. In understanding, Pyrrha kept to herself and didn't prod any further.

With each minute that passed, the red of fatigue faded from Ren's cheeks as he picked up pace on their path. Already, they could just make out the peak just up ahead, they only had to pass through the bog and a short trek upwards to reach the Plateau.

The bog didn't smell anywhere near as bad as they'd expected it to, courtesy of the water-mass consisting mainly of moss and dead leaves. With its three occupants gone, the ocean of Kings was for the time vacant and now was the most opportune time to cross to the other side.

Ren simply walked through the ankle high mud, his dress pants slightly lifted above so to not spoil.

Pyrrha, not wanting to touch the mud at all, took to the trees and jumped from tree branch to tree brunch as she too the long way around the marsh. With marginal success on Pyrrha's part, they both crossed the marsh-area untouched and readied themselves for a short uphill hike to the peak; something Ren didn't take well as he visibly slouched at the mere prospect.

Deep within the moss filled waters, an ancient creature stirred, awaken from its slumber by the two beings invading its territory. The creature's body coiled violently from beneath the earth with such force it shook the forest.

Ren stopped in his tracks and put a hand to the ground, feeling the vibrations of the quivering earth.

The wet earth rose, and with it, a giant of a serpent Grimm followed. Deviating from the norm as per the Grimm species, the creature that stood before them was a singular entity unlike the twin headed King Taijitus. Covered in stark black scales that surely would have shone had it not been for the dirt covering the creature. Its red eyes twitched from beneath its mask as it fixed its gaze onto Ren and Pyrrha who stared back at the Behemoth wide eyed in delicious terror.

It savoured their expression and revelled in their fear momentarily before it let forth an ear-piercing hiss, it's forking tongue tasting the fear that lingered within the moist air of its territory. At that moment, every bird of prey and critter not of Grimm that littered the mountain-face forest took off all at the same time, migrating elsewhere that wasn't the mountain.

Ren: █ █ █ █ █ █ █ 72%

Pyrrha: █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ 85%

"Any plans?" Pyrrha inquired to Ren as they both slowly backed away.

"It's going to chase us and won't stop till either we're dead or it's dead. We can't kill it without our weapons but we can weaken it just enough to slow its pursuit," he said.

"Delay it somehow and make a run for the top and get to our weapons before that thing gets to us," he surmised whatever portion of a plan he had in mind which seemed to be enough for Pyrrha as she soon took a guard stance in front of him.

Feet wide apart she held her hands up in a boxer's stance as she readied for the creature to attack, her aura flaring wildly as it covered her closed fists. Beside her, Ren took to his own stance of similar pose but with open palms instead of closed fists and with more controlled output of aura in form of a shimmer rather than a wild flare.

The two circled the creature as it looked at them curiously, tilting its neck interchangeably looking to and fro between Pyrrha and Ren before lashing out at them simultaneously.

A whip of the creature's tail Ren's way, which he simply vaulted over letting the muscle strike stone behind him.

Ren: █ █ █ █ █ █ █ 72%

The Grimm had deduced Pyrrha as the stronger of the two and it reacted in kind as it lunged a head-strike Pyrrha's way, who evaded the creature with equal skill to Ren but without the flourish of his eastern-style of fighting. The creature missed the championess and instead struck a thick tree branch with its fangs bared such that it left itself exposed momentarily.

A moment that Pyrrha took advantage of as she immediately struck the creature with what she hoped was a fatal blow. A straight punch to the soft fleshy eye of the creature that sunk her arm halfway in, almost up to her elbow.

Pyrrha: █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ 84%

In response, the Snake-beast retracted the rest of its body and attempted to coil around Pyrrha but found its tail pinned down by something, the cause being the smaller, weaker human behind it.

Mounted atop the creature's back, Ren took a steady breath _(with thanks to Pyrrha taking the brunt of the creature's attention)_ and palm-stuck the base of the King Taijitus' spine.

With his upper body strength alone, the strike would've been meaningless what with the scales absorbing the brunt of what little strength he had, but with aid of aura mitigating the force unto the whole body and ignoring its natural defenses, his attack spread widely with enough force to temporarily paralyze the creature's lower body.

Ren: █ █ █ █ █ █ █ 69%

As soon the Grimm's mobility was locked, Pyrrha backed away from the creature and made to follow Ren in the retreat, but before that she intended to slow down the creature further.

Drawing upon the red sand of the mountain, she extracted as much iron-sand as she could within a set area; the total of which came down a couple handfuls but it was enough to accomplish what she had in mind.

Ever since her last tournament win, she'd spent the few months in-between pushing her semblance to new heights. Within those months, she'd perfected the use of iron-sand and even incorporated it into her combat, but due to how costly it was she reserved it as a trump card.

With Ren's back turned to her, she molded the black mass into a pipe thin javelin and hurled it at the creature head with intend to hopefully kill it or debilitate it.

The javelin flew true, with guidance of Polarity, it travelled in an absolutely-straight path with near blinding speed and it hit its mark even truer with an audible cracking of the creature's skull. Still immobilized, the creature stirred in place of violently thrashing about as the javelin sank a good half meter past it skull and well into the inner workings of its central nervous system, all of which went untouched by some stroke of luck rending the attack non-fatal.

She was disappointed at the failure but she hadn't expected much to begin with, thus she contented herself with the result and soldiered forth as she caught up with Ren.

Recovery took a while longer than was necessary, what with the lack of a healing factor, the ancient beast tried to call upon more of its kin but found their presence beyond its reach. Irregardless, with vengeance in its slither it violently lashed out at the surrounding topiary as it took off after the two that had wound it.

* * *

 **Words: 2760**

A/N: Events in this chapter are somewhat mirrored in the next, something i wanted to try doing.


	12. Enter: The Empress' Domain

**Enter: The Empress' Domain**

* * *

She walked with a killer's grace, hips swaying with each step in an almost feline stalk. There was no sound in her gait for she had bared her feet to null the crunching steps of boot on rock unlike the hundred that had gone before her.

Blake, he'd heard someone call her that but seeing she downright ignored the person, that may not have been her name. She'd been one of few to enter the cave mouth behind the cohort, opting to scour the forest floor for makeshift staves, sticks for use as torches and apparently _flint_ if the cutting hazard she held in dangerous grip was what he thought it was.

Blake✽ : █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ 96%

Whereas the rest had taken to the forest, he'd remained by the cave mouth, eyes closed to adjust his sight to the pitch black. It would've been folly to use a stick against a Death-stalker, and downright moronic to use a torch in a cave full of infrared-enabled creatures of prey. The girl in front of him, Blake, seemed to understand that and had instead been the second last to enter (himself behind her) after procuring a makeshift cutting weapon.

Jaune : █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ 96%

Blake✽ : █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ 96%

From the way she adjusted to the pitch-black so unnaturally fast, Jaune rightfully assumed she was Faunus. She had yet to turn back and reveal her eyes or features to him but she trekked the tunnels as if she had clarity.

"Hey…wait up," he tried calling out to her but she simply increased pace, walking faster as he approached and at some point, she'd disappeared into the shadows, her almost perfect camouflage betrayed only by the golden glow of her amber eyes.

After catching up to her, he gave her features a once over. Despite his poor vision, he could hazily make out the girl's features; she had long flowing black hair, wore very little in terms of clothing and armament but he chalked it up to a need of range in motion and for stealth purposes _(hence the black and grey ensemble)_ and her fiery golden eyes stood out amongst the rest. Save for the massive bow atop her head _(which he could've sworn twitched a little)_ she had very little going for her in terms of jewellery.

"Hope you don't mind me tagging along…figured you'd fare better in the dark than me," he said to the girl, who stopped in her tracks and placed the dagger-like flint onto his throat by its edge.

"How…How did you figure it out," she hissed at him, her eyes narrowing into vertical slits.

It was one of many things: the hollowed bow that kinda looked like cat ears in a silhouette, her light-footing that put his own to shame or her eyes.

"Your eyes do that…thing like a cat's," he said as he awkwardly hand-signed a straight-line inside a circle, referring to her vertical-slit pupils but without an extensive diction, hand signals were the best he could muster. Thankfully, she caught on to his meaning and seeing no ill-intent behind his actions, she withdrew the sharp hazard from his throat.

"I should get contacts for that when I'm done here," she whispered to herself.

"I don't want any trouble so can you keep this a secret," she asked of him in a soft voice betrayed only by the dangerous grip she held the piece of flint with and her tense posture.

"Won't tell a soul, Arc-Promise," What with the assistant-head being a Faunus himself, along with a good portion of the teaching staff, Aegis never had issues with discrimination but in understanding he assured her, to which she relaxed her guard and loosened her grip on the shiv.

* * *

 **Exalt the Queen of all that crawls  
**

* * *

Jaune : █ █ █ █ █ █ 64%

Blake✽ : █ █ █ █ █ █ █ 73%

Blake _(he'd somehow managed to confirm her name)_ was not one for small talk, any question he asked of her was either outright ignored or dismissed with a single word answer. The only sound he heard her make during the entirety of their accompaniment was whenever they encountered Grimm or when she was out of breath from all the running they had to do from the crawling creatures.

She also wasn't one for good humour apparently, as she'd expertly deconstructed just about every quip he'd cracked out in their trek, as such he'd resigned to closely following her lead in silence…right after she threatened to either ' _leave him behind_ ' or ' _slice open his gullet_ ' if he cracked another pun.

Why she hadn't left him already was beyond his reasoning but he wasn't one to look a gift horse in the mouth, she'd done well enough tolerating his presence thus far despite the crack-shot attempts at humour.

Now Jaune wasn't one for awkward silence but with the tunnels getting darker and darker with each twist and turn they took, he braved the silence and followed her lead, only speaking out whenever he felt a draft _(something she would have noticed first)_ or saw a bright light…

A bright light…like the one emanating from the right-side of the forking turn they'd just reached.

"Do you think that leads to the peak?" he asked, his voice now a whisper from disuse, having remained silent the whole time.

Cautiously holding a hand to the cave mouth, "There's a light source but no air-draft…so, maybe," she said, unsure.

Jaune didn't consult Blake as he sauntered into the entrance moments after, he did however, motion for her to stay behind just in case.

With as much caution as he could muster, he headed towards the faint light source which gradually became brighter with each step until it revealed itself to be an inverted teardrop shape of some sort. The gold-like shine of the ' _object_ ' was somewhat hypnotizing and he found himself reaching out to grab it but backpedalled when it shifted away from his touch.

Below the golden object, six red orbs opened with a wet ' _schlick_ ' noise and blinked at him, like…eyes.

"Blake…run," he whispered but the narrow tunnel carried his voice.

"What did you find in there," she shouted back, the noise making the creature in front of him flinch and stirring a little to reveal its full form to be that of a Death-stalker, the largest they'd faced so far within the cave or ever.

The creature towered over him by 'at least' a good fifteen to twenty meters, with a stinger the size of his torso, and its body covered in full-white chitinous armour with little to no red runes anywhere on its body indicating it age to be somewhere well over a millennium or close to it.

Thus far, they'd faced death-stalkers and, sure they'd been somewhat challenging to take down without weapons but at least then they were at such manageable sizes that they could be killed with a well-placed palm strike to the brain cage. The creature in front of him was a behemoth of a deathstalker, A-class at the very least and lower S-class if you're pulling straws.

The walls cracked, strained from the one single movement of the creature as it shifted itself to attack. Debris and stalagmite fell unto the creature's hide, massive spikes that would normally crushed a lesser creature shattered upon impact with its hide, no amount of bullets or grenade could possibly penetrate it.

The tunnel had been a straight path, much to Jaune's relief, as it meant he could dive backwards with aid from Tempest straight out of the cave mouth while simultaneously evading the stinger which was literally inches away from carving his face had he not acted on time.

In the handful of seconds it took him to blast out of the cave, the deathstalker had due to its size, made strides to match his flight speed; such that by the time he reached the outside of the tunnel the creature had bulldozed its mass out the cave mouth sending rocks and debris every which way.

Blake, paralyzed by fear at the sight of the creature, simply stood in place and failed to notice Jaune practically tackle into her and picking her up, slinging her weight over his shoulder and making a mad-dash for the alternate pathway to the left.

"What…is that?" ignoring the uncomfortable bobbing from Jaune running with her over his shoulder, she asked of him as she faced the rear where the creature was hot on their trail.

"A deathstalker," he answered.

"That's not a Deathstalker Arc…they don't grow to that size," how the creature fit inside the narrow passage she wondered to herself in panic, but he soon figured that the small-space posed no trouble to the creature if it could carve a path with each step it took.

"Well this one did…can you run the rest of the way yourself. My bones are making funny noises," with the adrenaline from the initial encounter fading, he said as he was starting to slow down from carrying her weight while sprinting.

"I'm not that heavy," she said as she gracefully dismounted to his side and took off into a sprint the moment her feet touched the ground.

"You're not heavy at all, I'm just not that strong," he expertly dismissed the touchy subject while vaulting over a fallen chunk of debris.

Unrelenting, the creature picked up pace, its hide scraping the tunnel wall with such force that the vibrations carried through the entire mountain. While running from the creature they'd been taking random turns and had been backed into corners more often that they would've like but after minutes of cat-and-mouse with the Deathstalker they reached an open tunnel that led to the outside, if the draft and sunlight was anything to go by.

"There…," Blake pointed to the exit way. "That's our way out, if we can get to our weapons we should be able to at least fight that thing off long enough for extraction to get to us."

"There might even be other students to help," Jaune pitched in as he slowed down just enough to let Blake get ahead of him and be the first one to pass through.

The exit-way was a narrow space fit enough to let only one person through at a time. In the two or so second it would have taken Blake to go through, the Grimm would have gotten close enough to swipe its stinger his way while entering and if he wasn't fast enough he would suffer for it. Thus, he figured he had to somehow distract it _(which he could've done very easily had the area been filled with stalagmite like the others before)_ or push it back somehow.

Semblance was his best bet to fulfill either task but he found himself lacking in terms of a way to stop the creature but abundant when it came to aura, the trial hadn't been too taxing on him since he had well more than half of his reserves remaining.

Jaune : █ █ █ █ █ █ 61%

Blake✽ : █ █ █ █ █ █ █ 68%

Drawing on his vast reserves, he attempted to envision a wall of air large enough to push the Grimm back but failed to materialize the construct. Such a display would've required aid from a lot of dust and a more open field than a cave to draw atmosphere from.

Instead he settled on using the laws of the world to his advantage, focusing some of his power to his right hand, he whipped it in a rightward motion, sending a miniature spiraling typhoon heading for the creature's front-most leg.

The eddy wasn't powerful enough to do any real damage but it didn't need to and it wasn't intended to. Judging from the way the Deathstalker walked _(skittered more like)_ and with its weight, the spin of the eddy should've been able to throw the creature off-balance upon collision...he hoped.

As Blake dove through the hole he watched with one eye, as the creature now loomed within a two-meter space of him and the Eddy with the other, violently picking up dust on its way to the front leg, which upon impact briefly clashed with the creature's leg but ultimately dissipated, seemingly without effect. Moments after, however, the Deathstalker slipped mid-stride, its leg having been offset just enough for its weight to topple it onto its side, if for a moment.

That moment was all he needed as he followed Blake out the cave and unto the Plateau where he'd hoped the weapon container would be in view.

Fortunately for him, the containers were in view as well as other students _(familiar faces even)_ who had just finished their own respective trials at the same time he and Blake did theirs.

Unfortunately for him, said students were also on the run from a colossal Grimm of their own, a King Taijitu.

The first student, whom he recognised as Ren, nodded his way as he made for a sprint towards the centre of the Plateau where their weapons were. Blake and Ren were such similar personalities that It appeared they had the same plan.

The second student alongside Ren he recognized as...Pyrrha. The surprise was mutual it would seem, as Pyrrha fixed her gaze at him wide eyed in confusion while still on the run from the King Taijitu. It didn't last long though, as the Deathstalker literally burst through the narrow cave-mouth in such style that would have acceptable for a B-rate flick.

"Jaune...," Ren spoke in-between heaving breaths, "nice meeting you here."

"Likewise Ren...Pyrrha?"

"Unexpected but also expected, I thought you'd be joining us next year," Pyrrha said as she picked up pace.

"And I thought you'd be in Haven," Jaune stated to which Pyrrha, too winded to respond in full, simply shrugged in response just as Blake pushed past with blinding speed.

"That's Blake by the way, she doesn't like talking to people much," he introduced his companion. True to his word, she only huffed in response.

"There's other people by the lockers," up ahead, Blake shouted while signalling the others at the site.

The King Taijitu, wounded from earlier confrontation _(a blackened piece of what appeared to be rebar sticking out like a horn from its skull)_ slithered its way towards them leaving a trail of black blood and a snail trail of what appeared to be mud and moss.

The Deathstalker, in pristine condition save for several scratch marks on its shell from scraping along the cave wall, skittered in wide strides, traversing at such speeds that shouldn't have been possible for a creature its size.

* * *

 **Words: 2560**

A/N: Saved all the action for the following chapter. I find that too much combat (even in a combat-esque narrative) ruins the magic behind the conflict, too much of anything is never a good thing. Unsure about this chapter, word's auto-correct kept changing the words to the australian standard but when i uploaded to the site the whole document was highlighted red cause it uses american standard.

Unicode: ✽

Upcoming(possible chapter names): In the Presence of Royalty, True Sovereign


	13. Seize the Queen's Crown

**Seize the Queen's Crown  
**

* * *

His breath came out in small hurried puffs as he fumbled to unlock the metal canister before him, wasting a good half minute trying to key in a digital code on the school issued scroll while Nora, Ruby and two other girls held their pursuers at bay.

Pink smoke crawled unto his visage before dissipating, Nora's handiwork he found out when he turned a-back; followed by the tell-tale crackling of ice-forming, covering one of the Death-stalkers front legs in place if only for a second, courtesy of the white-haired beauty, Weiss, that had been accompanying Nora.

Ruby burst forth in a deadly bouquet of red petals, the silver of her scythe gleaming as it bounced the light of the midday sun his way. Meanwhile, her blonde buxom companion, Yang, ignited her being as she punched away a tail-swipe from the serpent with great force; the source of her explosive energy being her rage.

To his far left, Pyrrha and Blake unlocked their respective lockers simultaneously, retrieved their weapons and jumped into the fray followed by Ren who lagged just a little bit behind, observing, conversing with and formulating some plan of attack, while taking pot shots at both the creatures. The seconds slowly ticked by until finally, Jaune unlocked his locker and pulled out his blade, still wrapped in black cloth in place of a harness which he slings over his shoulder after drawing both blade and sheath to be held in hand.

Blake ✽:█ █ █ █ █ █ █ 73%

Ren 蓮: █ █ █ █ █ █ █ 69%

The ensuing battles on both fronts have adverse results upon nature; the earth remains scarred by the Deathstalker's skittering and violent gusts threaten to throw the students of the mountain face each time the King Taijitu whips its tail.

Unintentional on their part; the students had, much to Jaune's delight, separated into appropriate groups of three.

With the heavy hitters, that is Nora and the blonde, barely holding back the Queen.

Nora brings her War-hammer plummeting towards the creature's head, where she assumed the brain to be located but so dense was its shell, the resulting clash send vibration running through her thus disarming her for but a second.

Nora: █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ 84%

Yang punches away at the creature's midsection, the force of each punch multiplied by explosive rounds to no consequence but serves to be enough of a nuisance to divert the creature's attention away from Nora just long enough for her to retrieve her hammer and back pedal to safety.

Yang 🐉: █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ 85%

The hit and run fighters (Jaune excluded), Pyrrha, Blake and Ren continue circling the Serpent King which sponges all attacks they throw its way.

Deviating from her guard-and-counter style, Pyrrha had taken to simply cycling the creature while bearing the brunt of its attention as the one who damaged it most. With the great and deadly aim of her renewed weapon's rifle-form, she takes aim at the creature's eyes and let forth four bursts of 5 rounds each followed by another four at the creature's soft underside before reloading and repeating the process, with a majority of the rounds having no adverse effect, embedding themselves into the scales and the rest of them bouncing off harmlessly instead.

Pyrrha ϕ:█ █ █ █ █ █ █ 73%

In the back, fulfilling the roles of support are Weiss and Ruby who have taken to interchangeably supporting either party with long distance fire and glyph augments.

Hiding behind the lockers, away from the creatures' notice lays Ruby, who manages to successfully take out the Deathstalker's left eye out with a well-placed shot of her sniper rifle followed by Weiss who binds the creature in place by freezing its left pincer before it could swipe away at Yang who had been dazed from an earlier assault by the creature.

Ruby : █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ 81%

Weiss ❄: █ █ █ █ █ █ 63%

Observing in the back was Jaune, who had, by now learned of each present student's fighting style and the role to which they fit best. The roles they'd taken to were the most optimal for prolonged survival against the creatures.

They might have been older than him, more experienced than him and some of them he could tell were more skilled than him in areas; Jaune had no doubt in mind that they'd be able to endure the creatures' onslaught but only that.

In the presence of the ancient creatures, they would endure but never have an end goal in sight if they remained as such.

They were good fighters, a few of them even had in their possession surprisingly complementary skill-sets but he found them severely lacking in what they needed at the time.

As the headmaster said during his speech, they lacked direction. He had direction. Thus, he gave them direction.

Jaune: █ █ █ █ █ █ 61%

At the top of his voice and with help of the plateau's curving rock face, he shouted and his voice rung through and clear.

"Fall-back and Regroup," he commanded.

Startled by the shout, the Deathstalker and King Taijitu stopped in their tracks momentarily, giving the students a second and a chance to safely retreat.

"Hope you got something for us Boy-Wonder causes nothing we do out there's harming those things," Yang spoke out with heaving breath, being the closest one to his position she'd been the first one to reach him followed by the others who circled around him, one eye at him and the other to the creatures who had contented themselves to remaining in place for the time being.

"I might have some way to deal with the King Taijitu if what Pyrrha told me is true," Ren said, followed by Pyrrha who briefly explained the origins of the black metal rod protruding from the creature's head like a horn.

"I need as much lightning dust as you can all spare and someone to run distraction with me," to which all eyes fell on Weiss who relieved her rapier off its yellow-dust cartridge in offering to Ren, with the others following suit as they portioned off special-ammunition-cartridges which totaled a canister's worth of _powdered_ and three bullet sized chunks of _unground_.

"Nora…how much current would I need to down that," he said while pointed to the King Taijitu which continued to circle the lockers, inching ever closer with each revolution.

"It's mighty long so that's a lot of surface to transfer…," she mumbles to herself a string of numbers in uncharacteristic contemplation before concluding, "with what we have on hand you'd be lucky to be push out…three amps," true to the saying; appearances can be deceiving, Nora demonstrated an affinity for the language of the universe, which when asked later she responded in a matter-of-factly manner saying one doesn't simply toy with explosives without an understanding of mathematics.

"Enough to stop internal functions if transferred 'directly' yes," he inquired, emphasis on direct.

"Just all the important ones," she grinned madly with a devilish fire in her eyes.

"Ms Schnee, you wouldn't happen to have a glyph that discharges electricity would you," he asked of the heiress who smirked in affirmation.

With the King Taijitu nearing, Ren and Weiss dismissed themselves as they took of in a sprint followed by Pyrrha and Blake who took cautionary shots at the creature thus drawing its attention away from the remaining four students. Nora had made to follow and would have too had it not been for Jaune pulling her back into the scrum.

"I have a plan of my own too, to take care of the Deathstalker, and you," he pointed to Nora, "are the key player in it."

"Ruby and her friend will draw its attention away from us, while you and I ...," as he got up from a crouch and he proceeded to elaborate on the details of the plan much to Nora's delight.

"Stay safe and don't take unnecessary risks," and with that they too took of in a sprint towards the Queen who glared menacingly at the warriors fast approaching with deadly intent.

With absolute faith in Ruby's observation of 'Green Destiny', Jaune hoped the sword was as strong as Ruby made it out to be if he wanted to execute his plan.

'Hammer and Nail', as Nora had so affectionately dubbed the plan, worked in multiple parts. Each one corresponding to each of the students with Yang and Ruby being two halves of one whole portion.

The first part of the plan was to create an opening for Jaune and Nora to strike.

They first had to draw the Deathstalker's attention away from the locker area to another open plain area where its movement was less grounded; it would've been a dis-service to the other student to find their weapons totaled in the wake of the ensuing conflict Jaune had reasoned, that and for the sake of Ren and his group. He had kindly drawn the King Taijitu's attention away from them so he, in turn, took their fight as far away from them as possible so to not clash with their plan.

To accomplish the feat, one of them had to bear the brunt of the creature's onslaught while leading it away to a clearing. Yang, had volunteered herself for the role and refused to listen to any of Jaune's protest until he simply he complied with her death wish, with some convincing from Ruby albeit hesitantly.

The creature swiped at Yang, who in panic vaulted over the creature's pincer and in doing so diverted the creature's path back to the lockers due to the excess momentum in its swing. With a silent cuss, she taunted the creature to swipe at her again as she put her arms out criss-cross in a cross-guard, ready to receive the attack.

Jaune had been witness to the blonde fighting earlier and the brief encounter had left him with a somewhat skewed opinion of her skill. The way she fought, told of a crippling reliance on Semblance. Even though he couldn't tell what it was, the signs were there. Her absolute disregard for proper defense was the most tell-tale, earlier he'd chalked it up to the girl being in possession of a defensive semblance that made blocking unnecessary, however that wasn't quite the case.

Yang 🐉: █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ 83%

The creature's pincer hit Yang square …everywhere.

Such was the creature's size and immense was its power that he saw her aura flare protectively, crackle as her barrier was strained to almost shattering and flicker in response to the damage she'd received.

Yang 🐉: █ █ █ █ █ 52%

Why the girl had volunteered for something like this only to get herself almost killed with the first hit…he had no clue, but nothing else mattered at the moment. His plan had failed and his only priority was to pull her out to safety before the creature finished her off.

Yang 🐉: █ █ █ 33%

"Hang on, I'm …," he shouted only to be stopped by Ruby who grinned at him before fixing her gaze back to the crater where the blonde laid in.

There she was, in perfect health albeit missing a marginal chunk of her aura but somehow all the stronger for it. As the creature neared her position, it pulled back its pincer ready to swipe at her again only for the attack to be sidestepped by the blonde who moved to its underside.

Yang 🐉: █ █ █ ▭ ▭ ▭ ▭ 33%

She took to a boxer's stance and cocked her fist in cartoonish wind-up, with a manic grin she let forth a resoundingly booming straight punch to the creature's underbelly.

There was a flash of white, followed by black smoke and the smell of gunpowder and _dust_. The chitinous armor of the creature shuddered as the force of her punch was transferred all throughout its body and the armor cracked in places where once dents had been formed due to its reckless locomotion, one in particular caught Jaune's fancy.

Yang 🐉: █ █ █ ▭ ▭ 33%

As she pulled back her fist from its belly, the creature's legs gave way as they slowly started to leave the ground followed by the rest of its body.

Jaune gaped in awe as he bore witness to a creature of close to two tons get thrown a good meter into the air and flipped onto its back with a single punch. Yang fell to her knees as exhaustion and pain seeped in, her aura now nearly in the red she was out of the fight but she'd done more than enough.

Yang 🐉: █ █ 23%

Due, in part to the resulting shock with added damage from the awkward fall, a thumb sized chip in the chitinous armor had formed right atop the creature's crown where its other set of eyes were located, and if his memory of Grimm studies served him well, that was also directly above where the brain was located.

With the creature on its back and Yang having gone above and beyond his expectation, Jaune motioned for Nora to move in and await his signal.

The creature writhed and stirred, shaking its legs violently until it toppled itself over upright. It fixed it gaze towards Yang who laid aground in exhaustion, and had made for a beeline towards her when suddenly it felt a sharp ringing course through its body.

Ruby: █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ 77%

With use of her weapon's rifle-form, Ruby drew the creature's attention away from Yang.

Prior to Yang's devastating counter, the creature's hide had been adamant and any shot she took at it would have simply bounced off, but now that chinks had formed in its armor … there were a lot of structural weak points to take advantage of.

She took a shot at the creature's crown, where the most glaring weak point was. The bullet travelled true but due to the Deathstalker stirring, it hit its mark albeit offset of a centimeter. She had intended to let the bullet penetrate but rather it had instead chipped of even more chitin, making the previously thumb-sized hole into a half finger-length crevice.

Instinct, dulled by a thousand years worth of complacency, compelled the Deathstalker to move a pincer to the crown area just in time to deflect another shot from Ruby.

With the creature's attention divided between Ruby and a downed Yang, Jaune moved into its guard to execute the second part of his plan.

Jaune: █ █ █ █ █ █ 56%

Noticing his presence, the Deathstalker backpedaled to put some distance between itself and the knight to no effect for he had the storms on his side as he was passively propelled ever forward with aid of gusts.

Jaune: █ █ █ █ █ 52%

The creature swiped at him and he in turn, vaulted over the pincer to land on top of the limb and proceeded to traverse a fair distance to the crown. It bucked in attempt to throw him off but yet again, its effort were to no effect … thus in a moment of either stupidity or desperation it swiped at him with its tail.

A golden blur came plummeting down towards him at blinding speeds, to which he had only a fraction of a second to react. Since he was still standing on one of the creature's limbs it hesitated to strike him in full for but a moment, a moment that he used to its fullest as he ducked under the oncoming stinger which struck the creature's pincer with enough force to sever the limb.

Having ousted itself the creature roared in pain, completely ignoring him as he took of in a sprint, scaling the now half-pincer. He drew his blade in hand and lined the tip of the blade with the crevice; the gap wasn't wide enough nor did it extend far enough for him to drive the sword all the way through, it was however enough to lodge the blade in far enough to line the pommel with Nora's hammer.

"Nora … now."

She skipped her way to Ruby who shifted her weapon to its scythe form and reared it backwards in a swing, where Nora took a hop-step only to be flung twenty feet into the air by the scythe's momentum as it came back in full force and made contact with her trekkies.

At twenty feet in the air, Nora was level with the creature's enormous height thus, with use of the recoil produced by her launcher she lifted herself further up by another twenty feet.

Still writhing and screeching in agony for having lost a limb and possibly self-afflicting venom, the Deathstalker paid no heed to Nora who 'whooped' as she came plummeting down onto its crown. With a couple spins mid-air to build momentum, she brought her war-hammer down by its flat face unto the pommel of Jaune's sword, driving the blade further into the inner working of the creature with such force that the sword came out the other side and embedded itself into the rock face nearly all the way through, stopping short of the hilt.

Nora: █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ 81%

Black blood oozed from the gaping hole in the creature's belly, spilling out an oily-black ichorous mess with bit of offal mixed in, with one particularly vital organ being skewered to the earth by the blade.

Without a center to regulate function the deathstalker ceased its ungodly screeching and all movement and remained completely still for a few seconds. A breath and a half later, the lifeless remnants struggled to remain upright as the carcass staggered dizzily until it toppled itself over onto its side.

"Is it dead," from afar, Yang wheezed in-between heaving breaths, still exhausted and in pain.

None answered as they fixed their gaze to the now motionless creature laying on its side. It had yet to dissipate like most Grimm do, but given the age and size of the beast, it was only a matter of waiting.

Its back four legs were the first to curl up as the dark essence of the creature seeped through the cracks in its armor like an oily mist. Slowly but surely, the front four followed suit, as even more miasma leaked into the atmosphere, congregating into a massive black cloud that blotted out the sun momentarily before floating away god knows where.

"Yep… it's dead now," he answered her just as the remaining mask crumbled into ivory, powdery artifacts.

From the other side of the plateau, there was a crack of thunder, a brilliant white flash that blinded them for a passing second followed by an ungodly screech of the King Taijitu in its last moments. A miasma cloud of almost equal mass to the Deathstalker formed in the King Taijitu's wake as it evaporated into dark essence signalling its end.

"Looks like they're done as well," Yang said as Nora helped her onto her feet while Jaune struggled to pull the blade from the earth.

Yang 🐉: █ █ █ 25%

He held the steel up to his eyes to inspect its length for any damage; running a finger along the now shining blade's cutting edge _(the dust layer having been spent sometime during the battle)_ and lingered his gaze to the hilt where Nora had struck it and found it perfect and untouched.

"Not even a scratch after all that," Ruby, who'd somehow sneaked up to his rear whispered in awe as she too eyed the blade. Too exhausted to appropriate a response he simply sheathed the blade and made to convene with their now returning fellows who chattered to themselves their recounts of their battle.

 **...**

 **...**

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 **Words: 3230**

A/N: 3000+ words for an action sequence felt like a bit of stretch so I cut it short, only depicting the consequential bits and not every single movement. I'll be going over this chapter and smoothing out some parts I may have left 'off', so to say. One problem I notice when depicting conflict with a group in mind, is that it becomes hard to keep track of who's doing what and in extreme cases, who's who; I tried to get past that by breaking it into parts and depicting each one as its own sequence. Because of that, I won't be doing the King Taijitu portion, I'll let your minds run wild.

Pure iron + Direct connection to nervous system + insane amounts of current (3amps is a lot by the way) = ? **  
**

Voltage shocks, Current kills, Power burns.

 **Note** : Nora is often depicted as comedy relief but her character is wasted if restricted to just that; for her to do what she does and still be alive, she'd have to be insanely smart with at least some background in Maths (the specialist kind) and Physics or pyrotechnics. Why? She works with explosives for one, heart shaped explosives. Now that i think about, Beacon is basically a school of Engineering students if they all make and maintain their own weapons.

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Unicode: 🐉❄ 蓮 ✽ ϕ


	14. Aschenputtel

Relevant Extra

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 **Aschenputtel**

'Click' 'Clack'

With ferociously cattish gait she sauntered through the walls of the tiered tower that was Haven, her midnight hair bobbing as she swayed and lips glistening of bloody red, dripping of sinful beauty. The clicking of her heels echoing with each step as she made her way to place where seldom many students graced unless explicitly summoned by the esteemed Lionheart himself.

The headmaster's office was a fair walk away, situated high atop the tower's peak overlooking the seven hills upon which the capital was built on. Curious on-lookers eyed her as she made for the express lift. Some in question as to why she had been summoned but most of them were wandering eyes.

As she neared the office, the scent of various teas and herbal concoctions assaulted her senses, most pleasant but some few earned a grimace from her as they were far too strong for her liking.

Despite her distaste, the smells admittedly served to accentuate the grandeur of the office what with its exotic red-wood doors, the commissioned tapestry that littered the walls and appropriately themed, lion face door knocker.

From the other side of the door she could just barely make out the hush-hush of conversation that had apparently reached its end as soon as she neared.

"Do come by again Mr Nilah," she heard the gentleman say, a reply followed but too low to discern any words and such she only heard what sounded like a mumble.

A stone faced, olive tan, blue-eyed youth with a frock of neatly styled dirty-blonde hair walked out of the headmaster's office, a well-endowed girl of similar height and description in tow, both wearing heavily modified uniforms.

In place of the plain black-jacket, the young man wore a black and blue, frock-coat blazer _(sherwani)_ ; and the girl wore, in place of the scandalously short mini-skirts, a blue patterned waist-sash _(sari)_ that draped all the way past her ankles. Both of their ensemble with equal amounts of gold lining the fabric.

In his wake, the young man held the sliding doors open to allow her entry.

"Excuse me Professor." Of ingrained etiquette lessons, she excused herself in a lady-like manner as she entered the neatly furnished office.

"Please, be seated Miss Tremaine," the headmaster said as he pushed a chair her way while pouring a cup of fragrant tea for his guest and for himself.

"Miss Tremaine is my mother. If you wouldn't mind sir, I prefer Ella or Cinder." There was venom in her expression showing clear distaste at the notion of being associated with the woman she called mother.

"Apologies Miss…Cinder. I usually refer to my students in a formal manner…but suppose I can make an exception for my top first year student," he said as he slid a place-mat her way, followed by an ornate porcelain mug with gold lining the cracks, real gold judging by the heftiness of the cup.

"Much appreciated sir." She replied, in acceptance of the tea he offered and the compliment.

A moment of silence passed as the Headmaster took a sip from his cup followed by a content sigh. Cinder on the other hand waited for the concoction to cool down to a tolerable temperature in silence, whilst contemplating how the elderly gentleman seemed to be unfazed by the still boiling water as well as the purpose of her visit.

"Do try the tea. It's an excellent infusion of spice and herbs from beyond Mistral, courtesy of Mr and Miss Nilah whom I believe you just passed by."

"I've heard of their family name before but I've never had the pleasure of meeting them in person."

"…," he seemed to ponder in his lonesome for a passing second, "perhaps that's about to change."

"You called me here for a reason, sir. If I may ask, why?" The tea was an excellent ice-breaker and a good conversation starter. Not wanting to waste time on small talk with the gentleman least he detracts into irrelevant territory, she steered the conversation straight to the point.

"Of course…Of course. As it were, the new-student initiation will be held tomorrow and will go well into the week, in sync with Shade and much like Beacon's own. As such, we've decided to go a different route this year."

"No cliff-jumping," she asked out of curiosity with a mask of relief. The previous year had been a most traumatizing experience for herself and many others who survived the drop, the horrors of untimely free-fall were not something she would have wished on her worst enemy.

"Oh Oum no. As much as I value tradition, I must admit it's gotten old. We'll be doing something different this year. All the Academies have taken the initiative to break from tradition," he said as he poured himself yet another cup of piping hot tea.

"And how do I factor into this initiative, sir."

"With the semi-annual Vytal-Festival upcoming, we've decided to ' _up the level_ ' of screening so to accept only the best and brightest," he said as he summoned a holographic projector in the table centre.

"Atlas has decided to go back to its militaristic roots with a gruesome _trench-war-fare_ simulator," at this the monitor displayed bird's eye view of tilled lands littered with barbed wire, the camera shaking every now and then whenever a background explosion resounded.

"Shade has gone with a trial by _literal_ fire." The footage shifted to the inside of a _volcanic_ crater with rocky _stepping-platforms_ floating atop the pyroclastic ocean of bubbling molten rock, every now and then the odd platform would suddenly sink and rise back up glowing red and dripping with liquid fire.

"Ozpin has somehow convinced the council to sanction an exception to breach the Nidus Plateau and hold Beacon's initiation there." The footage showed an ominous low-angle shot of the mountain, taken from a significant distance away from the base in such a way the clouds seemed to touch the peak with the camera man panting and heaving as he ran from an unseen danger off-screen.

Unlike the previous snippets which played out in their entirety, this one was abruptly cut short when what appeared to be a giant feather landed in front of the terrified man and knocked the camera out of his hand, followed by muffled screams and a fade-to-static the next minute.

The headmaster sat up from his chair and walked up the sole window in the room, he motioned for Cinder to follow and drew her attention to a red clay, tiered ceramic-tiled tower down below.

"Haven's own initiation will be no-where near as dangerous but I like to think it'll be the most challenging," the headmaster said as he moved to the table and proceeded to tap in a few commands into the holographic display.

A soft-light model of the Tower appeared, slowly rotating and highlighting each of its seven floors.

"The test will be done in seven levels on each of the seven floors. I wanted you and Mr. Nilah to oversee the Special skills and Combat potions of the screening on the first and second floors respectively."

At that, the seven layers dismantled and portraits of seven individuals herself included, some students and others non-students she recognized as alumni.

The first-floor ( _Combat_ ) had next to it, a portrait of the stone faced youth from before, expressionless as ever, with a tag hovering above written " _ **Indra**_ _Nilah_ ".

The second floor ( _Special Skills_ ) was allocated to her and had a list of names below her portrait, her assigned group of students she assumed. Among the handfuls a golden-haired youth of faunas heritage stood out for quite possibly all the wrong reasons, his name tag popping up abruptly with a red watermark over his portrait printed _'late entry'_ , almost as if he registered last minute.

The third floor marked aura manipulation had a floating tag that read 'sword in stone', allocated to a familiar face that she had absolutely no fond memories of. Smugness almost oozing out of the portrait of her fellow second year student Albus Pendraigg who was assigned to the floor above her.

The remaining floor masters as she had dubbed them, were third and fourth year students she recognised from her time as a fresh student and some were alumni that visited form time-to-time.

"I apologize for springing this on you out of the blue like so, but I trust in your ability to impart judgement. I'll mark this down as an opportunity to earn extra credit just to make it worth your while," the headmaster said.

"I'll be honoured sir," she responded.

"Do be so kind as to pass greetings to the Lady for me," the elderly gentleman rummaged through a cupboard compartment and fished out a beautifully decorated tin which he handed to her as he dismissed her.

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My belated thanks to those who've followed and favorite. By default notifications where disabled and I never really looked at the numbers before, the summary is usually what sells me to a story.

 **A/N** : With initiation out of the way I can finally move onto things like world building, development arcs and prelude to the tourney. This chapter was just a way to show what the other academies are up to. Without the threat of a queen, there's obviously going to be different conflicts and such.

A tiered tower is a **pagoda**. Mistral seems to be a mish-mash of Mediterranean culture and Eastern Architecture, if the Volume 4 is anything to go by. The bottom areas were white-column buildings so that's the Roman architecture and the upper layer were fill of Tiered Towers so Chinese Architecture. They have gladiatorial fights so the culture is prevalently Roman but the Quipaos(china dresses, what Chun Li wears) and Hanfus the people wear say Chinese.

 **Aschenputtel** is Little Ash Girl, the title of the original Cinderella by Brothers Grim which was later re-written into Cendrillon with a sexual twist.

 **Indra** \- was often referred to as the one with yellow hair **Nilah** is sanskritt for Blue.

 **Albus** = white | **Pendraigg** (Pendragon) = Chief Dragon

Gold is used in the art of repairing broken pottery and looks especially attractive on porcelain.

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Thanks for reading and please do leave a review or a comment to fan my ego or crush my spirit if you can.


	15. Nightingale

**Nightingale -** (Unedited) **  
**

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He was seething.

Though his tone was an orange-ish tan, a few shades short of his burnt-orange hair, his visage was tinted a hot red with rage.

Initiation had proven far too challenging for someone of his caliber but after three humiliating tries, each more dangerous and a closer shave with death than the last, he'd finally reached the peak where he claimed his place in Beacon, dead-last with an entourage of fellow weaklings in tow.

Now he found himself atop a podium, under the scrutinizing gaze of a few hundred eyes for the whole school to beckon and pass judgement; puzzle piece in hand and with an excitable lanky looking thug/student jittering and muttering to himself as a partner, and two more twigs(in comparison to himself) next to him. By some stroke of misfortune, he'd been paired with a Thrush (who'd done the brunt of the navigation and the sole reason he passed, though he'd say otherwise if asked), the other two had joined them at the peak shortly after completing their respective portions of Initiation.

In order the Headmaster called them out," Cardin Winchester, Russel Thrush, Dove Bronzewing and Sky Lark," and they moved out accordingly.

"You four will comprise of Team **Cardinal** ," the headmaster said taking a pause for dramatic effect and continued thusly, "lead by Cardin Winchester."

A few awkward claps from 'here and there' resounded, not of enthusiasm but rather of dutiful obligation and pity since no one else seemed to be doing so. Cardin had actively, though not intentionally, inspired the hate of just about every student he'd met thus far, which, at the moment, consisted of the entire first year student body, Beacon's rather large faunus population and a small group of senior teams thanks to his 'oh so courtly mannerisms and charm'.

With a hint of disappointment and contempt which was quickly masked away, Bronzewing gave the brute a pat to the back and a not-so-enthusiastic congratulation to which he got an indignant scoff in return. After receiving their room designation and a handshake from the head, they each made to leave the stage when the headmistress said something to herself in hushed whisper which momentarily stopped the brute before he left the stage and made a beeline for the exit, charging through a few students in his wake.

"Pity … I'd hoped Mr. Nightingale would be studying with us instead," she'd said in passing.

With the stage cleared, the student body stopped their clammering and fixated their gaze to the projectors situated above the amphitheater, all of which were displaying a joint effort between eight students as they battled a Death-stalker Queen and a Leviathan of a King Taijitu in two groups of four. With scarce time, the battle wasn't shown in its entirety, just snippets of the crucial moments.

"Miss Pyrrha Nikos…"

He called out Pyrrha first, whose entrance was followed by a recording of her in action against the serpentine creature of Grimm. The champion had taken to bracing herself by lowering her legs and positioning herself in a squat, she didn't cower as the ominous tower of muscle sped her way in a whip-lash and instead she braved the attack with her shield for all of two seconds before she was sent plummeting upwards in a graceful, controlled arc which had her landing right next to Ren and Weiss.

"…and partner, Yang Xiao Long."

Following Pyrrha was Yang, who entered the stage with flourish and cattish gait as she made her to stand by her partner, relishing the cat-calls sent her way by the various resident males whom she replied in kind with a saucy wink. Above her, the monitors displayed footage of her punching a two-ton creature into the air eliciting a thundering, roaring applause.

"Mr Lie Ren…"

Next the old man, called out Ren who waved at the peanut gallery, a particularly loud section solely occupied by a certain shield maiden who was frantically waving her arms around in cheer. His was followed by passing footage of his acrobatic excellence as he weaved in and out of the creature's guard whilst drawing its attention by taking pot-shots at its underbelly or eyes.

"…and partner, Miss Nora Valkyrie."

The last one was Nora who was by Ren's side the moment she was called and clung to his arm as she pointed to the screens excitedly. Ren shuddered when he saw the manic grin appear on screen and felt sorry for whatever creature succumbed to her wrath…his worry justified a second later as she was shown spinning mid-air and bring down her hammer upon a death-stalker's crown, killing it instantly.

"You four will comprise Team **Nanairo** (NNYR)," the old man announced, receiving a bellowing applause from the student body in awe of the recordings still playing their course.

"Led by …," he paused for dramatic effect, something that had started to annoy the present students due to overuse, "Miss Pyrrha Nikos."

Pyrrha, oh humble Pyrrha, had made to congratulate Ren for making team leader after assuming that to be the case but was stopped short by the announcement. As her fellows surrounded, giving her a pat on the back( a particularly violent pat to the back courtesy of Nora), an affirmative nod from Ren and a boisterous announcement from the brawler all the while sputtering in confusion and denial before being ushered off-stage by the headmistress.

"And last but not least, Mr Jaune Arc and Partner Miss Weiss Schnee…"

The Schnee name brought with it a mixture of disdain from all those privy of the dark dealings of the tycoon and veneration from all those who dabbled in the art of dust-weaving. Upon summoning, the heiress gingerly made her way to the center stage to stand beside her partner who was in similar state but unlike her it was from all the praise going his way. The footage accompanying their entrance consisted of a close-up of the knight shouting in a commanding tone followed by the heiress unleashing the wrath of thunder upon the serpentine creature in an impressive display of dust-weaving.

"Miss Blake Belladonna and partner Miss Ruby Rose…"

The last two were summoned to the stage, followed by an enthusiastic chorus of claps, a rather loud display of catcalling courtesy of Blake's 'cool beauty' demeanour and a collective cooing from the upper-class students in response to Ruby's clumsy entrance where-which she tripped on her cloak. The few others who were paying attention to the monitors witnessed Belladonna's assassin-like footwork in play as she scaled the serpentine creature without notice and Ruby's marksmanship claiming the Death-stalker's eye.

"You four will comprise of team **Auburn** (AWBR)," without pause this time he announced," lead by Mr Arc."

Blake was visibly nonplussed by the Heiress, it showed in the way she looked at her like one would rabid creature ready to mawl your face off at any given chance, something Weiss herself missed in her wallowing at not being made team leader but the ever astute knight saw and chose to ignore it for the time being, he had a redheaded ball of energy excitedly hanging of his arm to attend to.

"With that, Initiation has ended and all those present are free to roam the hallways to familiarize yourself with the campus grounds. Your timetables have been sent to your school issued scrolls," the Headmaster spoke, breaking the commotion and bustle of conversation.

"Will all Team leaders stay behind for briefing with Miss Goodwitch and myself. That's all and good day," he dismissed the students who exited the amphitheater room in rushed chaotic order.

Of over three hundred that had tried to enter the prestigious institute, a measly count of 60 succeeded bringing the total of first year teams to fifteen. A look around the now empty hall and Jaune found himself surrounded by a gallery of interesting characters, each one more outspoken than the last, either through sickeningly colorful attire, defiant posture or the predatory gaze some of them seem to have whenever they made eye contact.

Despite the man's seemingly frail demeanor, what with his reliance of a cane and the grey hair, he most certain had a powerful presence 'presence' to him and the woman next to him was no exception in terms of the power and confidence she exuded by simply existing. Their presence made more apparent with each student exiting and became downright suffocating when none but the leaders remained.

Save for Winchester, the fourteen young leaders gathered in the hall were witness to this side of the two professors now that the noise and distraction of a crowd was missing.

The students made their way to center-stage, each with a confident stride to them so to not show weakness and despite some of them being of defiant attitude and nature they were compelled to show respect as if by some higher power bearing down upon them. As they stood in line/formation, no longer did they have pocketed hands, slouched posture or intimidating scowls; they stood at attention, backs arched straight and hands firmly in place, held in whatever respectful gesture they were familiar with as if addressing a militant superior.

The elderly gentleman, sauntered his way to the center where he met the students in the middle. He took a slow, lazy sip from his ever present coffee mug and sighed contently, satisfied by the brew. In order, form far right to far left, he took a momentary glance at each student and when done, he turned back with a satisfied smile on his features.

"We're missing one sir," the Headmistress broke the silence.

"I noticed," he replied, stone faced but if one looked underneath there was clear disappointment, "we'll deal with him later. I trust you're up to the task, Glynda," at that the woman tightened her grip on her crop and seemed almost pleased.

He turned back to face the students, cleared his throat and started...

"Honor, Loyalty, Nobility, Virtue, Grace, Honesty, Courage, Courtesy, Gallantry, Authority, Servitude and Humility," he recited, with each value he spared a glance to a student in correspondence. Authority went to Jaune and Humility to Pyrrha.

"You have been chosen to lead your respective teams because I see in each one of you these values. Exemplars and Paragons of virtue as is said in Mistral. Stand tall and Be proud," he said and the tension in the room seemed to dissipate.

"I understand your excitement and hesitance in accepting the responsibility of leadership ... as you well should be."

"It is a position of great prestige and a great honor to behold but ... one must remember that with the prestige cometh the burden that you must carry with you."

"In your hands you hold the lives of your team, your peers, the thousand of civilians roaming the streets of Vale and beyond ,and more importantly," he took a pause for effect, a bad habit of his admittedly," the fate of the world rests in your hands."

"As a leader, you'll have to make difficult decisions that may well impact the world and the lives of others greatly. Such is the burden of our occupation … but despite that, we do what we must not because we have right to or the option to…"

"No, we do what we do because no one else can," he addressed the lineup who stiffened at his words.

"That is the burden of the Hunt," to end on a lighter note, "It is our honor to serve and it is our pride to protect."

His speech was brief, very brief such that it was clearly unrehearsed. His words, however vague and abstract, rung true to some but left a few confused. With the passing of time they seemed to understood the message as a moment of silence passed to allow them to draw their own conclusions and meaning from his words.

'There is no glamour nor honor in war, only true dignity for those who bear arms to fight for what's right,' as per Jaune's interpretation and summation of the rather short speech.

" Off you go now, go join your peers, explore the campus grounds and accustom yourselves with your new quarters. I'll be seeing you next week when the semester commences," he said as he made for the back exit followed by the Headmistress, "That is all."

* * *

" 'tsk' Great," the brute drawled, "I'm stuck with you three losers for the next four years."

"I think I speak for all of us when I say that the feeling of disappointment you're feeling," Bronzewing, the tallest and most physically imposing of the group made to retort, "is mutual."

"Hey," he shot back venomously, "I am a Winchester and you better show some respect or else,.

"I honestly expected that kind of behaviour from the Schnee but … you're living proof that stranger things can and will happen," Bronzewing snarked back, taking joy in the spectrum of emotion each response elicits from the brute.

A moment passed in silence as the other half of Team CRDL simply stared and gaped at the exchange between their leader and fellow teammate. Cardin's face flickered through a series of expressions, most of which consisted of him twisting his lips and scrunching his brows to form what he thought were intimidating gestures but only served to entertain the boy in front of him as he simply thought they made him look constipated.

Before the exchange could devolve into a fist-fight the four were suddenly brought to attention by the sound of hurried clicking of heels fast approaching the cafeteria entrance where the four had camped in hopes of acquitting themselves with the other.

From around the corner came the headmistress, stone faced like usual but with a deathly grip on her riding crop and a paralyzing glare Cardin's way.

"Mr Winchester," she said, her voice sharp as if she were reprimanding a child for breaking the cookie jar and her visage calm as rain but underlied by anger mixed in with some well-hidden sadistic mirth but most visible was her disappointment in the young man.

"Yes ma'am," the brute stood at attention, as dense and reckless as he was even he could tell when he was in trouble.

"Were you aware that while you shirked your duty to harass your own team the other leaders were in conference with the headmaster and myself," she asked him.

"...No ma'am," a moment passed in hesitance before he squeaked in reply.

"Don't lie to me Mr Winchester. I've caught word of your foul behaviour on my way here and I saw you take leave when the announcement was presented."

" …" he looked behind him hoping for support but found none except the gleeful smirk of Bronzewing who found amusement in his predicament while the other two looked indifferent.

The disciplinarian sighed to herself before resuming, "You'd do well to follow in your brother's footsteps and act in a manner not unbecoming of your family name."

Implied and very fancily worded, ' _you're a disappointment to the family name_ ,' she said. So he thought to himself as he resisted the deathly urge to scowl menacingly at her.

"This is your first and last strike Mr Winchester. I won't be so lenient the next time. When summoned, drop everything and pay attendance," she said as she made her way back around the bend where the sound of her heels slowly faded away.

And with that, he could practically feel any semblance of respect, whatever imaginary fragments they may have (strong theoretical) held for him disappearing. The twigs(Lark and Thrush) rested by the door as they looked at him as one would a wounded animal while the snarky giant, Bronzewing had on a smirk that simply oozed of smugness. Not really in the mood for banter he took off with a huff and made his way nowhere in particular.

On his way to nowhere he found himself blockaded by a horde of students surrounding the last two leaders announced, like a flock of rabid fans, which some of them were he learned when they started asking for autographs from the Champion whom he recognized and self-portraits with the short-skinny blonde wearing a stupidly cute hoodie.

He scowled as he maneuvered his way around the flock and spared a glance back from a distance only to find the blonde surrounded by more girls and the champion herself orbiting around him a bit too close for comfort.

'Arc' was the name that came to him after hearing some hushed whispers from here and there.

From afar he spied the boy fumble his way around the crowd like a small child (justified in that he seemed to be on the short end, height wise compared to the rest) at a new school as he made small talk with the passing student from 'this and that' class; such royal treatment and the boy was too much of a fool to use it for gain as he should. He deserved to be where he stood; he was bigger, clearly stronger as he had significantly more muscle mass and skillfully wielded a heavy weapon and had much better pedigree, second only to Schnee heritage.

He was, once again seething.

Face red with anger and nowhere to vent it.

With a destination in mind the brute charged his way through the still restless cohort of new students with reckless abandon.

In his wake he failed to noticed a java-clad girl with a most striking pair of long slack ears fast approaching. Being the more physically imposing of the two, he trumped over her in the charge, sending said girl sprawling across the cold but clean floor.

"I'm s-so sorry. I didn't see you there," she apologized in between stutters as she held out a hand in hopes of gentlemanly assistance.

She got none from him except a look of disgust as his eyes trailed upwards to her head setting his gaze on her ears.

"Out of the way 'animal'," he spat as he slapped away her hand.

Instead of walking around the fallen girl, he put in the effort of scaling over her with absolute disregard. The girl in question wasn't insulted in the least, she simply questioned the effectiveness of the action as opposed to maneuvering his way around her but soon understood that it was in attempt to establish himself her better. The message was delivered loud and clear but it was done in a stupidly extravagant manner.

' _Always one like him every year_ ,' she thought to herself with a great sigh.

' _For your sake I pray you don't cross Coco, god forbid Yatsu on a bad day_.'

* * *

 **Words: 3074**

 **A/N:** Been a while since I last updated, cant remember how long honestly. I lost this particular chapter when I migrated devices, my three year old gaming computer finally croaked so I had to work extra hard to buy another of equal quality which I did, last week so huzzah.

 **A belated kudos mysterious guest reviewer for catching onto the kintsugi analogy.**

Character Dynamic - In cannon Jaune is a bridge for RWBY and JNPR through Ruby but frankly that wasn't as well executed as it should have. It ended with way too much focus on JNPR and Blake(I've said this before I'm sure). To change the interaction dynamic, Ruby and Yang were split, Nora and Ren are a package so no change there. Blake and Weiss on the same team are a righteously disastrous mix without Yang as a buffer/foil for Blake's personality and Ruby to Weiss thus it had to happen. Only problem was to come with team names, luckily I'm pretty good at tetragrams and possess an extensive dictionary of useless terms that came in handy.

Power balancing is a favorite past time of mine and something I'll be doing throughout the duration, I find that giving a character too many abilities is a poor excuse of narrative-writing. Words from a wise-gal(i.e Me ... i think) A thousand ways to use a stick makes for a more interesting tale than that of a thousand sticks, ain't nobody got time for that.

A most interesting bit of misc info - a Nightingale is a Cardin. One and the same red bird.

 **R & R**

* * *

Nanairo(NNYR): Literally translates to Seven (Nana) Colors (Iro) or Prismatic. Alludes to the visible light spectrum, in layman terms- a rainbow. _Spectrobes was better than Pokemon btw._

Auburn: Red


End file.
